World Scrabble Championship 1995
Won by David Boys from 64 players
2nd November 1995 — 5th November 1995
Held in London
Sponsored by Mattel
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The World Scrabble Championship 1995 was the third World Scrabble Championship. The winner was David Boys of Canada.[1]
A fifteen round, Swiss-paired preliminary event was used to determine initial placement. The top four players then played a three-game round-robin (with the results of the first 15 games carrying over) to determine the finalists, who played a best-of-five final.
The first game of the finals was a close one with Sherman winning 431-421. Sherman missed a bingo (pENTROOF) but at that point, the game was already in the bag.
In the second game, many felt that Sherman blundered in his opening play while Boys cruised to an easy 404-278 victory despite missing ABOmASA early on.
Sherman and Boys traded wins again in games three and four, setting up a single game to decide the championship.
The final game was a bit of an anti-climax with Boys winning easily 432-300 (after challenging off Sherman's early phony TWINNERS) to take the World Championship. With two tiles in the bag, Boys chose to bypass a 98-point bingo (LADYBUGS) to block a triple-triple line that Sherman had a 1-in-18 chance of using for the game-winning 212-point PEJORATE. The blocking play left Sherman with no chance to win and left Boys as World Champion.
| Position | Name | Country | Win-Loss | Spread | Prize (USD)[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boys, David | Canada | 17-6 | +1154 | 11,000 |
| 2 | Sherman, Joel | United States | 17-6 | +679 | 8,000 |
| 3 | Grant, Jeff | New Zealand | 12-7 | +453 | 3,500 |
| 4 | Lipton, Bob | United States | 11-8 | +645 | 2,000 |
| 5 | Edley, Joe | United States | 12-6 | +668 | 950 |
| 6 | Gruzd, Steven | South Africa | 12-6 | +422 | 800 |
| 7 | Thobani, Shafique | Kenya | 12-6 | +381 | 650 |
| 8 | Logan, Adam | Canada | 10-8 | +149 | 550 |
| 9 | Saldanha, Allan | United Kingdom | 12-6 | +389 | 450 |
| 10 | Nderitu, Patrick Gitonga | Kenya | 11-7 | +734 | 350 |
| 11 | Cappelletto, Brian | United States | 11-7 | +477 | 300 |
| 12 | Appleby, Phil | England | 9-9 | +193 | 250 |
| 13 | Onyeonwu, Ifeanyi | Nigeria | 12-6 | +701 | 225 |
| 14 | Daniel, Robin Pollock | Canada | 11-7 | +484 | 200 |
| 15 | Wapnick, Joel | Canada | 10-8 | +264 | 175 |
| 16 | Felt, Robert | United States | 9-9 | -35 | 150 |
| 17 | Nyman, Mark | World Champion | 11-7 | +256 | |
| 18 | Rosenthal, Joan | Australia | 11-7 | -206 | |
| 19 | Sigley, Michael | New Zealand | 10-8 | +11 | |
| 20 | Fisher, Andrew | United Kingdom | 10-8 | -92 | |
| 21 | Warusawitharana, Missaka | Sri Lanka | 10-8 | +705 | |
| 22 | Okosagah, Sammy | Nigeria | 10-8 | +451 | |
| 23 | Fernando, Naween Tharanga | Sri Lanka | 10-8 | -500 | |
| 24 | Scott, Neil | Scotland | 9-9 | +426 | |
| 25 | Simmons, Allan | England | 10-8 | +377 | |
| 26 | Bhandarkar, Akshay | Bahrain | 10-8 | +48 | |
| 27 | Addo, Joshua | Ghana | 9-9 | +117 | |
| 28 | Placca, Chrys | Ghana | 9-9 | -155 | |
| 29 | Sim, Tony | Singapore | 10-8 | +94 | |
| 30 | Byers, Russell | England | 10-8 | -114 | |
| 31 | Tan, Teong-Chuan | Malaysia | 9-9 | -146 | |
| 32 | Elbourne, Peter | Malta | 9-9 | -266 | |
| 33 | Willis, Mike | England | 10-8 | +367 | |
| 34 | Williams, Gareth | Wales | 9-9 | +444 | |
| 35 | Widergren, Jeff | United States | 8-10 | +294 | |
| 36 | Blom, Roger | Australia | 7-11 | +112 | |
| 37 | Jackman, Bob | Australia | 9-9 | +272 | |
| 38 | Polatnick, Steve | United States | 9-9 | +238 | |
| 39 | Khoshnaw, Karl | Kurdistan-Iraq | 9-9 | +133 | |
| 40 | Orbaum, Sam | Israel | 7-11 | -301 | |
| 41 | Awowade, Femi | England | 9-9 | -168 | |
| 42 | Avrin, Paul | United States | 9-9 | -334 | |
| 43 | Thorogood, Blue | New Zealand | 8-10 | -69 | |
| 44 | Norr, Rita | United States | 8-10 | -110 | |
| 45 | Leader, Zelig | Israel | 9-9 | -325 | |
| 46 | Spate, Clive | United Kingdom | 8-10 | +102 | |
| 47 | Nevarez, Johnny | United States | 7-11 | +55 | |
| 48 | Paolella, Libero | Canada | 7-11 | +25 | |
| 49 | Holgate, John | Australia | 8-10 | -69 | |
| 50 | Hale, Glennis | New Zealand | 8-10 | -131 | |
| 51 | Lao, Armando | Philippines | 8-10 | -247 | |
| 52 | Siddiqui, Anwar | Pakistan | 6-12 | -255 | |
| 53 | Lobo, Selwyn | United Arab Emirates | 8-10 | -5 | |
| 54 | Romany, Rodney | Trinidad and Tobago | 7-11 | -349 | |
| 55 | Hossy, Debbe | South Africa | 7-11 | -659 | |
| 56 | Springer, Robert | France | 6-12 | -979 | |
| 57 | Arreola, Pepito | Saudi Arabia | 7-11 | -503 | |
| 58 | Harrison, Trevor | United Kingdom | 7-11 | -549 | |
| 59 | Kuroda, Kunihiko | Japan | 6-12 | -1026 | |
| 60 | Samarasundera, Wimal | Oman | 6-12 | -1405 | |
| 61 | Perez, Gerardo | Kuwait | 6-12 | -545 | |
| 62 | Holmes, Michael | Seychelles | 6-12 | -1044 | |
| 63 | Yeh, Winnie | Hong Kong | 5-13 | -923 | |
| 64 | Broderick, Chris | Ireland | 3-15 | -810 |