Thais finish 9th and 11th in "virtual" World Scrabble Championship - NZ doctor is the winner

[webfact]

File photo for reference only

 

Two Thai men finished well in the latest edition of the Scrabble world championship - the Gladiators WESPA Championship 2021.

 

Thacha Koowirat was 9th narrowly missing out on a top eight playoff berth and Apirat Choomai was 11th. 

 

They both won 21 games and lost 11.

 

Another Thai Napat Vatjaranurathorn was 27th with an 18-14 record.

 

This year because of the pandemic the event was contested entirely online with moderators in Pakistan making sure there was no cheating.

 

Competitors around the world had to have cameras making sure there was nothing underhand going on.

 

Winning the event for the first time was Alastair Richards a New Zealand doctor who is also an Australian national.

 

He defeated Australian and former world champion David Eldar 4-3 in the final with last plays of ENURE and ARK securing the title. 

 

Eldar is also an online poker expert. 

 

The highest placed American was Will Anderson who was third. The only Brit in the top ten was Times Scrabble columnist Paul Gallen of Northern Ireland. 

 

Six times world Scrabble champion and also a French scrabble champion Nigel Richards (no relation to Alastair) did not compete as he doesn't play online. 

 

Thailand and the capital city of Bangkok in particular is home to many expert Scrabble players and pre-pandemic many tournaments were sponsored by big companies and even the Royal Family. 

 

Thailand has had two world Scrabble champions in the past with Panupol Sajjayakorn winning as an 18 year old in 2003 and Pakorn Nemitrmansuk triumphing in 2009. 

 

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[Gold Star]

My dog ate all my scrabble tiles.

His next dump could spell disaster.

[jacko45k]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

with moderators in Pakistan making sure there was no cheating.

Errrr..... no comment!

[George Aylesham]

What about Rooster - where did he come?

[overt2016]

2 hours ago, George Aylesham said:

What about Rooster - where did he come?

We'll  Know on Sunday.

[tomacht8]

WOW, that's earth-shattering news. 9th and 11th in Scrabble. Thailand is back on the world map and economically saved. That brings food to the tables of all Thais. All educational deficits are blown away. Things are looking up again for everyone. Hooray.

[Scott]

Off-topic post reported and removed.

 

[Gsxrnz]

Congrats to the two Thai chaps on their success.

 

However being the cynic that I am, I'd like to know if they are actually fluent English speakers or just digested a dictionary.

 

A Thai friend of my wife could write you a novel in English with good grammar etc.  Ask her to speak it and she can't string five words together, and the accent.....oh my word!