World Scrabble Championships 2011

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Nigel Richards from New Zealand is crowned World Scrabble® Champion 2011and sets a new world record This weekend, Polish capital Warsaw has been the host city for the 20th anniversary of the World Scrabble® Championships, which set a record with the highest number of countries and entrants. After numerous rounds and knock outs and with tension running high, Nigel Richards from New Zealand and Andrew Fisher from Australia battled it out to decide who would be the 2011 champion. Winner Nigel was hotly tipped to win and entered the competition as previous champion in 2007 and runner up in 2009. This impressive feat means Nigel has set a new world record by being the only person ever to win 2 world championships. Nigel's opponents were unpleasantly surprised by his amazing skill to be able to turn straw into gold when it came to his tiles. Coming in second place, Andrew proved to be a worthy opponent but was unable to match Nigel's winning words. Warsaw proved to be an idyllic setting for the championships as 116 competitors flew in from 44 countries in what proved to be the biggest World Championships in its 20 year history. The inaugural World Scrabble® Championships took place in London with just 48 players but as popularity for the board game has grown, so too has the size of the competition. Those who entered the championships were some of the most practised, skilled and dedicated players from around the planet. Those competing spent years honing their Scrabble® skills and passed multiple qualifying rounds for their chance to play in the Championship, regarded as the epitome of their playing career. Some of the highlights of the tournament included the shortest match which took place between two competitors from Pakistan and the Netherlands who took just 3 moves to lead to a -6 to -9 win for the player from Pakistan. Over 4 days, players scored a total of 1,499,107 points in 1,801 games which equates to an average of 832 points per game. The player who scored the most points was the defending champion Pakorn Nemitrmansuk with 15,854 points -- an average of 466 per game.