United States Scrabble Open
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The United States Scrabble Open, known until 2005 as the National Scrabble Championship, is the largest Scrabble competition in the United States, held every year, and since 2004 the finals have been airing on ESPN & ESPN2. Its 2006 champion is Jim Kramer.
The first officially sanctioned Scrabble tournaments in the U.S. were spearheaded, organized and run by Joel Skolnick in the mid-1970s. Skolnick was a recreation director for the New York City Parks and Recreation Department (not "the Director of Parks and Recreation" (italics added), as mentioned in TOTAL SCRABBLE: The (Un)Official Scrabble Record Book, 2005 Update, otherwise very accurately compiled by Keith W. Smith). Skolnick approached Selchow and Righter in late 1972, and the first tournament, open to Brooklyn residents only, commenced on March 18, 1973. The Funk and Wagnalls Collegiate Dictionary was used to rule on challenges, and the official word judge was Skolnick's then wife Carol. Carol's sister, Shazzi Felstein, who would later finish in ninth place at the first North American Invitational tournament, won the first preliminary round with 1,321 points over three games. The final round took place on April 15, and Jonathan Hatch was the winner of the first official Scrabble tournament.
The summer of 1973 saw two more tournaments, held respectively at Grossingers (won by Minerva Kasowitz) and the Concord hotel (won by Harriet Zucker) in New York's Catskill region. Another two tournaments quickly followed in November that same year: in Baltimore, Gordon Shapiro topped approximately 400 contestants; and at the Brooklyn War Memorial approximately 2,000 people entered the nine weekly preliminary rounds of the first all–New York City Scrabble Championship. It was won by Bernie Wishengrad. The New York City Championship was thereafter held annually, jointly sponsored by Selchow and Righter and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.
The first national tournament was the North American Invitational, held May 19–21, 1978, in the Presidential Suite of the Lowe's Summit Hotel in New York City. Joel Skolnick and Carol Felstein, as usual, served as the tournament director and word judge, respectively. David Prinz took the $1,500 first prize, followed by Dan Pratt and Mike Senkiewicz.
In 1980, soon after the publication of the first Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, control of the national tournament passed to the National Scrabble Association, and they have organised it ever since. The event will not be held in 2007.
[edit] USSO history
| Year | Winner | Location | Entrants | Prize money |
| 2006 | Jim Kramer | Phoenix | 625 | $25000 |
| 2005 | David Wiegand | Reno | 684 | $25000 |
| 2004 | Trey Wright | New Orleans | 837 | $25000 |
| 2002 | Joel Sherman | San Diego | 696 | $25000 |
| 2000 | Joe Edley | Providence | 599 | $25000 |
| 1998 | Brian Cappelletto | Chicago | 544 | $25000 |
| 1996 | Adam Logan | Dallas | 416 | $25000 |
| 1994 | David Gibson | Los Angeles | 300+ | $15000 |
| 1992 | Joe Edley | Atlanta | 320 | $10000 |
| 1990 | Robert Felt | Washington | 300+ | $10000 |
| 1989 | Peter Morris | New York | 221 | $5000 |
| 1988 | Robert Watson | Reno | 323 | $5000 |
| 1987 | Rita Norr | Las Vegas | 327 | $5000 |
| 1985 | Ron Tiekert | Boston | 302 | $10000 |
| 1983 | Joel Wapnick | Chicago | 32 | $5000 |
| 1980 | Joe Edley | Santa Monica | 32 | $5000 |
| 1978 | David Prinz | New York | 64 (invitational) | $1500 |
