World Scrabble Championship 1999

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The World Scrabble Championship 1999 was the fifth World Scrabble Championship and was held at the Carlton Crest Hotel, Melbourne, Australia.

The winner was Joel Wapnick of Canada.^[1] This was the second time a player representing Canada has won, the first being when David Boys won in 1995. The 1991 champion, Peter Morris, was also a Canadian but represented the United States.

Eight games were played on each of the first three days with the top two players advancing to a best-of-five finals.

In the first game, Wapnick opened with the bingo CHAPLET and took a 249-60 lead three turns later with the double -double FILTHIER then cruised to a 624-307 victory. Nyman took the second game and Wapnick took the third then got off to an early lead in the fourth before losing a turn when he tried the phony FUROUR. The game remained tight, with both players getting down two bingos, until Wapnick drew the X and DEOXY for 50 to take a one -point lead and take the last tile out of the bag. With Wapnick having multiple places to go out, Nyman was unable to catch him and lost by a single point. Joel Wapnick could now add a world title to his US national title and Canadian title, one of only two players to have won the big three.

Complete Results

Position	Name	Country	Win–loss	Spread	Prize (USD)^[1]
1	Wapnick, Joel	Canada	18-6	+1068	15,000
2	Nyman, Mark	England	17-7	+808	7,500
3	Boys, David	Canada	17-7	+693	3,000
4	Logan, Adam	Canada	16-8	+886	2,000
5	Fisher, Andrew	England	16-8	+797	1,500
6	Byers, Russell	England	16-8	+647	1,250
7	Tiekert, Ron	United States	16-8	+366	1,000
8	Richards, Nigel	New Zealand	15-9	+1616	750
9	Cook, Andrew	England	15-9	+983	400
10	Holgate, John	Australia	15-9	+782	400
11	Cappelletto, Brian	United States	15-9	+711	300
12	Boyd, Kendall	New Zealand	15-9	+603	300
13	Fernando, Naween Tharanga	Sri Lanka	15-9	+217	200
14	Appleby, Phil	England	15-9	+191	200
15	Sherman, Joel	World Champion	15-9	+73	200
16	Chinnaiyah, Suresh	Sri Lanka	14-10	+910	200
17	Wiegand, David	United States	14-10	+820
18	Klaphajone, Jakkrit	Thailand	14-10	+635
19	Quiballo, Virgilio	Philippines	14-10	+566
20	Luebkemann, John	United States	14-10	+309
21	Chunkath, Mohan Verghese	India	14-10	+292
22	Awowade, Femi	England	14-10	+203
23	Odom, Lisa	United States	14-10	+151
24	Ndungu, Stanley Njoroge	Kenya	14-10	+102
25	Epstein, Paul	United States	14-10	+88
26	Jackman, Bob	Australia	13½-10½	+166
27	Webb, David	England	13-11	+602
28	Edley, Joe	United States	13-11	+447
29	Credo, Ronald	Philippines	13-11	+439
30	Gongolo, Michael	Kenya	13-11	+255
31	Gruzd, Steven	South Africa	13-11	+222
32	Rosenthal, Joan	Australia	13-11	+214
33	Warner, Howard	New Zealand	13-11	+194
34	Williams, Gareth	Wales	13-11	+178
35	Hersom, Randy	United States	13-11	+106
36	Thobani, Shafique	Kenya	13-11	+14
37	Ploysangngam, Amnuay	Thailand	13-11	-16
38	Cherry, James	Canada	13-11	-27
39	Pra, Michael	Oman	13-11	-369
40	Nemitrmansuk, Pakorn	Thailand	13-11	-382
41	Grant, Jeff	New Zealand	13-11	-588
42	Chishty, Ishtiaq	Saudi Arabia	12½-114½	+399
43	Rio, Odette Carmina	Philippines	12-12	+569
44	Smitheram, Brett	England	12-12	+555
45	Felt, Robert	United States	12-12	+360
46	Geary, Jim	United States	12-12	+358
47	Filio, Roland	Philippines	12-12	+285
48	Schonbrun, Lester	United States	12-12	+100
49	Gipson, Helen	England	12-12	+37
50	Pui, Cheng Wui	Malaysia	12-12	+6
51	Jimoh, Saheed	Nigeria	12-12	-22
52	Bwire, Matayo	Kenya	12-12	-31
53	Hahn, Albert	Canada	12-12	-48
54	Bondin, Owen	Malta	12-12	-293
55	Asirvatham, Ganesh	Malaysia	12-12	-293
56	Warwick, Wilma	Scotland	11½-12½	-514
57	Bhandarkar, Akshay	Bahrain	11½-12½	+156
58	Cleary, Paul Stephen	Australia	11½-12½	+59
59	Sutthasin, Taewan	Thailand	11½-12½	-728
60	Sim, Tony	Singapore	11-13	+247
61	Early, Dylan	South Africa	11-13	+115
62	Gonzalez, Ricardo V	Gulf Champion	11-13	+112
63	Lipton, Bob	United States	11-13	-8
64	Polatnick, Steve	United States	11-13	-130
65	Tang, Michael	Malaysia	11-13	-172
66	Sinton, Peter	New Zealand	11-13	-197
67	Elbourne, Peter	Malta	11-13	-319
68	Abraham, Arvind	United Arab Emirates	11-13	-359
69	Khan, Rashid Ateeq	Pakistan	11-13	-427
70	Berlin, Barbara	Australia	11-13	-487
71	Gan, Cher Siong	Singapore	11-13	-726
72	Hirai, Keiichiro	Japan	10½-13½	+188
73	Hovelmeier, Trevor Mark	South Africa	10-14	+197
74	McDonnell, Brendan	Ireland	10-14	+75
75	Webb, Alice	England	10-14	-33
76	Lobo, Selwyn	United Arab Emirates	10-14	-83
77	Kong, Chock Heng	Malaysia	10-14	-210
78	Judd, Rodney	Pakistan	10-14	-366
79	Assesa, Dixon	Kenya	10-14	-398
80	Penaflor, Vivian	Bahrain	10-14	-476
81	Pray, Linda Hazel	Oman	10-14	-591
82	Kuroda, Kunihiko	Japan	10-14	-614
83	Eburu, Gold	Nigeria	10-14	-740
84	Usakiewicz, Wojciech	Poland	10-14	-876
85	Costello, Catherine	Ireland	9½-14½	-237
86	Charles, Leslie	Trinidad and Tobago	9½-14½	-603
87	Blom, Roger	Australia	9-15	+215
88	Metivier, Edward	Trinidad and Tobago	9-15	-164
89	Kane, Alistair	Australia	9-15	-353
90	Goh, Eugene	Singapore	9-15	-498
91	Sandu, Dan Laurentiu	Romania	9-15	-2008
92	Nanavati, Jim	Canada	8-16	+6
93	Fasuba, Johnson	Seychelles	8-16	-491
94	Wanniarachchi, Lakshan	Sri Lanka	8-16	-519
95	Michel, Antonin	France	8-16	-951
96	Silva, Dhanpala	Seychelles	8-16	-1187
97	Saliba, Mario	Malta	7-17	-868
98	Caba, Catalin-Eugen	Romania	3-21	-2991

Finals
Game 1: Wapnick 624 – Nyman 307
Game 2: Nyman 444 – Wapnick 330
Game 3: Wapnick 462 – Nyman 339
Game 4: Wapnick 403 – Nyman 402