World Scrabble Championship 2001

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The World Scrabble Championship 2001 took place at The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip, USA. The eighty-eight players played eight games on each of the first three days, in a Swiss tournament. As usual, the top two players then competed in a best-of-five final to decide who would become world champion.

[edit] Results

After the Swiss tournament, the top two players were Brian Cappelletto representing the United States, with 18 wins and winning spread of +921, and Joel Wapnick, defending champion from 1999, with 17 wins and winning spread +1006. These two players thus contested the final.

In the first game of the final, Wapnick played first. Both players began by changing tiles, then exchanged straightforward bingos (ANALYSE and IRATELY respectively). Further highlights included Wapnick's WHEEP and BAJU and Cappelletto's INDUSIA. In the final move, trailing 482-464 and with only the O remaining on his rack, Cappelletto needed to score 16 points to force a draw. Unfortunately for him, there was no such move available and, while he played the best available move (ZO for 13), Wapnick took the game 482-479.

The second game was less high-scoring, with only two bonuses; Wapnick's DRESSING and CONDOLER. Despite this, Cappelletto won the game 410-372 to level the match at 1-1.

In the third game, Wapnick began the game with a bonus (LOURINg for 64), but Cappelletto won a claustrophobic game 400-352, and lead the match 2-1. Notably, he finished with just six seconds left, and his opponent had only four seconds remaining.

The fourth game proved decisive, as Cappelletto again won by a comfortable margin, 444 to 338.

By three games to one, Brian Cappelletto was declared World Scrabble Champion 2001.

[edit] Complete Results

Position	Name	Country	Win-Loss	Spread	Prize (USD)
1	Cappelletto, Brian	United States	21-7	+921	25,000
2	Wapnick, Joel	World Champion	18-10	+1006	10,000
3	Kramer, Jim	United States	17-7	+597	5,000
4	Polatnick, Steve	United States	16½-7½	+533	3,000
5	Fisher, Andrew	Australia	16-8	+1043	2,000
6	Lipton, Bob	United States	16-8	+735	1,000
7	Smitheram, Brett	England	16-8	+656	800
8	Okosagah, Sammy	Nigeria	16-8	-64	600
9	Wiegand, David	United States	15½-8½	+1085	400
10	Logan, Adam	Canada	15-9	+801	300
11	Fernando, Naween Tharanga	Sri Lanka	15-9	+772	250
12	Sinton, Peter	New Zealand	15-9	+674	250
13	Gongolo, Michael	Kenya	15-9	+528	250
14	Geary, Jim	United States	15-9	+364	250
15	Mallick, Joey	United States	15-9	+314	250
16	Nemitrmansuk, Pakorn	Thailand	15-9	-271	150
17	Sim, Tony	Singapore	14-10	+717	150
18	Awowade, Femi	England	14-10	+628	150
19	Warner, Howard	New Zealand	14-10	+379	150
20	Edley, Joe	United States	14-10	+371	150
21	Simmons, Allan	England	14-10	+272
22	Perry, Andrew	England	14-10	+243
23	Okulicz, Edward	Australia	14-10	+228
24	Credo, Ronald	Philippines	14-10	-118
25	Luebkemann, John	United States	13½-10½	+630
26	Felt, Robert	United States	13-11	+1022
27	Davis, Andrew	England	13-11	+631
28	Chinnaiyah, Suresh	Sri Lanka	13-11	+545
29	Klaphajone, Jakkrit	Thailand	13-11	+355
30	Manase, Joshua Otieno	Kenya	13-11	+344
31	Mead, Jeremiah	United States	13-11	+268
32	Sykes, Christopher	Canada	13-11	+259
33	Grant, Jeff	New Zealand	13-11	+113
34	Williams, Gareth	Wales	13-11	+87
35	Quao, Michael Arthur	Ghana	13-11	+62
36	Asirvatham, Ganesh	Malaysia	13-11	-7
37	Elbourne, Peter	Malta	13-11	-557
38	Hirai, Keiichiro	Japan	12-12	+676
39	Boys, David	Canada	12-12	+465
40	Holgate, John	Australia	12-12	+414
41	Simpson, Evan	England	12-12	+231
42	Daniel, Robin Pollock	Canada	12-12	+194
43	Hersom, Randy	United States	12-12	+167
44	Kaufman, Zev	Canada	12-12	+135
45	Hoekstra, Ron	Canada	12-12	+122
46	Graham, Matt	United States	12-12	+3
47	Gruzd, Steven	South Africa	12-12	-54
48	Eichler, Maor	Israel	12-12	-201
49	Khoshnaw, Karl	Kurdistan-Iraq	12-12	-279
50	Talbot, Rodney	Australia	12-12	-297
51	Sherman, Joel	United States	12-12	-349
52	Hovelmeier, Trevor Mark	South Africa	12-12	-654
53	Boyd, Kendall	New Zealand	11-13	+244
54	Apindi, Isaac	Tanzania	11-13	+216
55	Filio, Roland	Philippines	11-13	+177
56	Lamabadusuriya, Harshan	Sri Lanka	11-13	+136
57	Cherry, James	Canada	11-13	+62
58	Tang, Michael	Malaysia	11-13	-16
59	Chunkath, Mohan Verghese	India	11-13	-158
60	Acton, David	England	11-13	-196
61	Cheah, Siu Hean	Singapore	11-13	-380
62	Poku, Kwame	Ghana	11-13	-435
63	De Souza, Margarida Ana	Trinidad and Tobago	11-13	-600
64	Assesa, Dixon	Kenya	10½-13½	-70
65	Ranasuriya, Mario Shalendra	Bahrain	10½-13½	-753
66	Clottey, Aaron	Ghana	10½-13½	-776
67	Litunya, Patrick	Kenya	10-14	+131
68	Webb, David	England	10-14	+125
69	Cleary, Paul Stephen	Australia	10-14	-81
70	Arreola, Pepito	Saudi Arabia	10-14	-262
71	Khan, Rashid Ateeq	Pakistan	10-14	-378
72	Tanee, Samuel Fomum	Cameroon	10-14	-757
73	Kalumba, Paul Yandisha	Zambia	9½-14½	-496
74	Delicata, David	Malta	9½-14½	-974
75	Grayson, John	Wales	9-15	+134
76	Sutthasin, Taewan	Thailand	9-15	-296
77	Abordo, Chris	Bahrain	9-15	-377
78	Sinclair, Alan	Scotland	9-15	-412
79	Hemachandra, Sanath	Oman	9-15	-809
80	Cree, Chris	United States	9-15	-1118
81	Chakravarthy, Ranganathan	India	8½-15½	-82
82	Singh, Lewis	Guyana	8-16	-834
83	Prabhu, Cecil Fernandes	Gulf Champion	8-16	-1124
84	Sandu, Dan Laurentiu	Romania	8-16	-1759
85	Miranda, Mario	Philippines	7½-16½	-872
86	Costello, Catherine	Ireland	7-17	-691
87	Cotejo, Danny	Qatar	5-19	-1287
88	Wright, James Charles	Gibraltar	4-20	-1971

• FINALS:
• Game 1: Wapnick 482 - Cappelletto 479
• Game 2: Cappelletto 410 - Wapnick 372
• Game 3: Cappelletto 400 - Wapnick 352
• Game 4: Cappelletto 444 - Wapnick 338