Nigel Richards wins 2019 World Scrabble Championship

(Photo credit: Bex Sutton, MSA)

Congratulations to Nigel Richards who secured his 5th title with a 3 games to 1 victory over David Eldar at the Mattel World Scrabble Championship in Torquay this weekend. Nigel overcame a game 1 loss to win 3 in a row to take the title in a high quality match that featured very few sub-optimal plays by either player. He was presented with the trophy by the recently elected head of WESPA, Chris Lipe.

The two finalists, seeded 1 and 2, had finished top of the standings after the preliminary 35 games. On Saturday, Nigel beat Syed Imaad Ali of Pakistan in the quarter-finals and then Paul Gallen of Northern Ireland in the semi-final. David Eldar beat Dave Wiegand of the USA and then Peter Armstrong, also from the USA.

Paul Gallen beat Peter Armstrong in a deciding game in the play-off for third place - another strong tournament in 2019 for the Northern Irishman.

The remainder of the top ten was headed by the defeated quarter-finalists, Dave Wiegand, Jason Keller, Harshan Lamabadusuriya and Syed Imaad Ali, with Dave Koenig 9th and Rik Kennedy in 10th.

Daniyal Sanaullah won the challenger division play-offs, with Mirza Taha being the runner-up.