The World Scrabble Championship 2009 was held in the Zon Regency Hotel, Johor Bahru

Johor Bahru

Johor Bahru is the capital city of Johor in southern Malaysia. Johor Bahru is the southernmost city of the Eurasian mainland...

, Malaysia, between November 26 to November 29. The tournament format was 24 rounds for all players, followed by best-of-five finals between the top two players. There were 116 places allocated to competitors from around the world, with 108 players eventually competing.

Results

The winner was Pakorn Nemitrmansuk

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk

Pakorn Nemitrmansuk is one of Thailand's top Scrabble players and the 2009 World Scrabble Champion. An architect and resident of Bangkok, Thailand, Nemitrmansuk has competed at World Scrabble Championship six times between 1999–2011 and was the runner-up in 2003 and 2005.At World Scrabble...

 of Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 who defeated the reigning champion Nigel Richards

Nigel Richards (Scrabble)

Nigel Richards is a Scrabble player who represents New Zealand in international competition. He is the reigning World Champion and a three-time U.S. National Champion, the only player to have held both titles concurrently...

 of New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 with three games to one in the best-of-five finals. The two finalists earned their spots by each winning 18 games in the first 24 rounds. Dave Wiegand of United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 won 17 games and placed third.

Pakorn set two additional WSC records at this event, by winning 14 consecutive games in the preliminaries
and by scoring 670 points in a final game, which included a triple-triple of the word PALUDINE scoring 167 points.

The first game was close, Pakorn winning 425-419. Bingos from Pakorn included HOMEWARE, DELEtING and DRENCHING. Bingos from Nigel were STAMINAS and REDEPLOY.

The second game was a record 670-303 win for Pakorn, during which he had a personal best 5:04 remaining on the clock. Pakorn started with the bingo UNRuLES and continued with OORIEST, EBRIATE and the triple-triple PALUDINE. He also had luck with the Z and Q. Nigel chipped in with bingo REAcTOR.

Nigel pulled one back in the third game, 443-394. He had two bingos JINKERS and LICHTED compared to Pakorn's three: REpTANT, STAINED and RAMPAUGE, but Nigel scored more with his (100+ per bingo).

The fourth game saw Pakorn take the title of World Champion at last, after two runner-up positions, in a high scoring and close game 499-480. It was a bingo-bingo start, with Pakorn getting ADVENES and Nigel GRIFTERS. Nigel had a further FrEEHOLD and BOHEMIAN. Pakorn followed up with GENETRIX on the triple and a game winning BOTANICA and BOWATS.

Complete Results

Position	Name	Country	Win-Loss	Spread	Prize (USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... )
1	Nemitrmansuk, Pakorn	Thailand	18-6	+1388	15,000
2	Richards, Nigel	World Champion	18-6	+1854	6,000
3	Wiegand, David	United States	17-7	+895	3,000
4	Siriwangso, Marut	Thailand	16-8	+1207	2,000
5	Panyasophonlert, Komol	Thailand	16-8	+1095	1,000
6	Boys, David	Canada	16-8	+876	900
7	Fernando, Naween Tharanga	Australia	16-8	+842	800
8	Beevers, Craig	England	16-8	+777	700
9	Wapnick, Joel	Canada	15½-8½	+748	600
10	Gipson, Helen	Scotland	15-9	+883	500
11	Jighere, Wellington	Nigeria	15-9	+658
12	Benedict, Nathan	United States	15-9	+634
13	Rodrigues, Sherwin	India	15-9	+624
14	Katz-Brown, Jason	United States	15-9	+608
15	Fisher, Andrew	Australia	15-9	+533
16	Ikekeregor, Dennis	Nigeria	15-9	+301
17	Kennedy, Rik	Northern Ireland	15-9	-68
18	Nicholson, Mikki	England	14-10	+880
19	Nyman, Mark	England	14-10	+620
20	Mackay, Lewis	England	14-10	+585
21	Thevenot, Geoff	United States	14-10	+561
22	Kramer, Jim	United States	14-10	+473
23	Bowman, Brian	United States	14-10	+441
24	Saidu, Ayorinde	Nigeria	14-10	+398
25	Sujjayakorn, Panupol	Thailand	14-10	+364
26	Scott, Neil	Scotland	14-10	+200
27	Ball, Nick	United States	14-10	+160
28	Okulicz, Edward	Australia	14-10	+33
29	Kenas, Mark	United States	14-10	+8
30	Brousson, Theresa	Malta	13½-10½	+188
31	Limprasert, Pichai	Thailand	13½-10½	+72
32	O'Laughlin, John	United States	13-11	+783
33	Robertshaw, Phil	England	13-11	+644
34	Lamabadusuriya, Harshan	England	13-11	+476
35	Grant, Jeff	New Zealand	13-11	+383
36	Placca, Chrys	Ghana	13-11	+376
37	Leah, Tony	Canada	13-11	+361
38	Schellenberg, Mark	Canada	13-11	+191
39	Rosin, Sam	United States	13-11	+167
40	Wee, Ming Hui Hubert	Singapore	13-11	+127
41	Litunya, Patrick	Kenya	13-11	+73
42	Appleby, Phil	England	13-11	-37
43	Cheah, Siu Hean	Singapore	13-11	-38
44	Khatri, Waseem	Pakistan	13-11	-53
45	Harrison, Martin	England	13-11	-431
46	Eldar, David	Australia	12½-11½	+315
47	Warner, Howard	New Zealand	12½-11½	+191
48	Bhandarkar, Akshay	United Arab Emirates	12-12	+783
49	Green, Neil	Wales	12-12	+551
50	Gongolo, Michael	Kenya	12-12	+384
51	Allan, Paul	England	12-12	+291
52	Balasingam, Vannitha	Malaysia	12-12	+268
53	Wanniarachchi, Lakshan	Sri Lanka	12-12	+210
54	Panitch, Max	Canada	12-12	+170
55	Mwangi, Willy	Kenya	12-12	+93
56	Sukhumrattanaporn, Charnwit	Thailand	12-12	+51
57	Halsall, Trevor	Australia	12-12	+22
58	Early, Dylan	South Africa	12-12	-54
59	Tamas, Adrian	Romania	12-12	-86
60	Akonor, Michael	Ghana	12-12	-169
61	Siddiqui, Irfan	Bahrain	12-12	-171
62	Simmons, Allan	Scotland	12-12	-473
63	Amalean, Shaila	Sri Lanka	11½-12½	+170
64	Purnomo, Ricky	Singapore	11½-12½	-237
65	McMahon, Kevin	Ireland	11-13	+626
66	Hoekstra, Ron	Canada	11-13	+377
67	Hovelmeier, Trevor Mark	South Africa	11-13	+207
68	Okwelogu, Chinedu Nosike	Nigeria	11-13	+36
69	Kougi, Peter	Australia	11-13	-148
70	Yeo, Kien Hung	Malaysia	11-13	-262
71	Prudencio, Marlon	Singapore	11-13	-282
72	Delicata, David	Malta	11-13	-366
73	Golding, Andrew	Canada	11-13	-445
74	Gabriel, Marty	United States	11-13	-446
75	Thorogood, Blue	New Zealand	11-13	-509
76	Parchamento, Roger	Philippines	11-13	-617
77	Pantis, Mihai	Romania	11-13	-667
78	Linn, Robert	United States	11-13	-740
79	Khan, Rashid Ateeq	Pakistan	11-13	-830
80	Ikawa, Victor	Bahrain	11-13	-836
81	Oyende, Allan	Kenya	10-14	+307
82	Buddhdev, Anand	Netherlands	10-14	-206
83	Charles, Leslie	Trinidad and Tobago	10-14	-276
84	Saldanha, Dielle	Canada	10-14	-371
85	Bohbot, Herve	France	10-14	-404
86	Kantimathi, Sam	United States	10-14	-419
87	Craig, Joanne	New Zealand	10-14	-440
88	Abordo, Chris	Philippines	10-14	-451
89	Anthonius, Ferdy	Indonesia	10-14	-637
90	Kang, William	Malaysia	10-14	-951
91	Roddis, Marc	Sweden	10-14	-1506
92	Mpundu, Patrick Mulemena	Zambia	9½-14½	-215
93	Khongthanarat, Charnrit	World Youth Champion	9½-14½	-435
94	Idalski, Jason	United States	9½-14½	-544
95	Judd, Rodney	Pakistan	9½-14½	-557
96	McDonald, Abigail	Guyana	9½-14½	-1640
97	Lobo, Ralph	United Arab Emirates	9-15	-54
98	Ong, Suanne	Malaysia	9-15	-63
99	Tang, Michael	Malaysia	9-15	-489
100	Quao, Michael Arthur	Ghana	8-16	-304
101	Edwin-Mugisha, Phillip	Uganda	8-16	-385
102	Esmail, Mushtak	Tanzania	8-16	-829
103	Gonzalez, Ricardo V	Saudi Arabia	8-16	-964
104	Tanveer, Rohaina	Kuwait	7-17	-1006
105	Pieta, Bartosz	Poland	7-17	-1233
106	Geamsakul, Warodom	Japan	7-17	-1611
107	Fernandes, Cecil	Oman	5-19	-1384
108	Gomes, Anthony	Qatar	4-20	-2200

• FINALS:
• Game 1: Pakorn 425 - Nigel 419
• Game 2: Pakorn 670 - Nigel 303
• Game 3: Nigel 443 - Pakorn 394
• Game 4: Pakorn 499 - Nigel 480