World Scrabble Championship 1999

World Scrabble Championship 1999
4 November 1999 – 7 November 1999
Winner	Joel Wapnick
Number of players	98
Location	Melbourne
Sponsor	Mattel

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. 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	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