The first World Youth Scrabble Championships were held in Wollongong, Australia 2006. Competitors from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, England, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and United States have competed in the annual tournament so far. WYSC is open to anyone under the age of 18 on January 1 of the year of each tournament. The tournament used to be held at the start of December, but was brought forward to August for 2014. So far the WYSC tournament has been held in Malaysia four times, Australia once and the Philippines once. The 2014 event was held in Sri Lanka while the 2015 event was held in Perth, Australia.
Contents
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2006
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2007
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2008
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2009
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2010
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2011
- Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2012
- WYSC 2014 Colombo Sri Lanka
- 2015 WYSC Perth Australia
- References
In 2016, the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association (WESPA) Youth Committee cooperated with the Mindsports Academy to organise the Championship in Lille, France. Sanchit Kapoor from the United Arab Emirates was crowned the World Youth Scrabble Champion 2016.
Without the involvement of the Mindsports Academy, the event was renamed "WESPA Youth Cup" in 2017. It will be held in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2006
WYSC 2006 took place at Wollongong University, Wollongong, Australia
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2007
The 2007 WYSC took place on December 4–6, 2007 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2008
WYSC 2008 took place in Georgetown Penang, Malaysia
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2009
The 2009 WYSC was held in the Zon Regency Hotel, Johor Bahru as part of the Iskandar Malaysia World Festival of Scrabble. Unlike previous years of WYSC which featured 22 games over 3 days and a best out of 5 play-off; the 2009 WYSC was a 24-game tournament held over 3 days without any final play-off. The World Youth Scrabble Championships of 2009 was held from Tuesday, December 8 to Thursday, December 10. 2009 WYSC had a record number of entrants of over 80. Members of the Malaysian monarchy were present for the prize giving ceremony. The Princess of Malaysia personally congratulated each of the prize winners. In the pre-tournament trivia competition (which includes 3 team-of-3 games of scrabble), the winning team was "Table 8", consisting of Joe Knapper of England, Phillip Hamilton of Australia and Theodoro Martus of Philippines.
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2010
Cheong Yi Hua of Malaysia, a non-qualifier, finished in 19th position and received the encouragement award for her well-above-expectation result. Irwin Goh of Malaysia received the Paulette Yeoh Award for his strong behind-the-scenes helping of the tournament. This was the first WYSC to have more than 1 female finish in the top ten [Kitty-Jean Laginha (Australia) and Jessica Pratesi (England)] and the first WYSC to have a Filipino finish in the top ten (Mohd Bin Abdul Suma). The pre-tournament trivia competition ran again in 2010 and the winning team was "SAM GUN" which consisted of Kim Rubina (Philippines), Arvinran Rajendran (Malaysia) and Shahroz Zamir (Pakistan). Second place went to the returning team name of "Table 8" which consisted of Phillip Hamilton (Australia), Traci Malitao (Philippines), Pranav Kaarthik (Qatar) and Lim Mao Fong (Malaysia). 4 ladies made it to play at Table 1 during the tournament. They were: Sirinapa Srinornil (Thailand), Natasha Podesser (Australia), Kitty-Jean Laginha (Australia) and Jessica Pratesi (England). This the first time more than one female had played on table 1 with the exclusion of Game 1. Finally, Natasha Podesser of Australia was the only player in existence to have played in all 4 previous WYSC tournaments, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and also the 2010 WYSC. However, being 17 years old during the 2010 WYSC, she will be too old to compete in any further WYSC's. Oluwafemi Akinlosotu of Nigeria held the lead of the tournament for the (incredibly) first thirteen games.
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2011
WYSC 2011 took place in the same location as 2007 and 2009: The Zon Regency Hotel, Malaysia. This year produced the youngest ever WYSC champion, Anand Bharadwaj being a mere 11 years old and in the process making Australia the second country to have had a representative win WYSC more than once (2006/2011) the other country being Malaysia (2009/2010). Michael McKenna (Australia) placed 3rd, making it his second 3rd placing in his years at WYSC (2009/2011). Jessica Pratesi placed in 9th position for the second year running, Mohd Suma retained his 8th position from 2010. Anand also stayed in first position for longer than any other player, leading the tournament for an astonishing eleven rounds. 2011 was the first year that there were no competitors who had played in every single WYSC. The pre-WYSC trivia tournament that ran in 2009 and 2010 did not run in 2011.
Top 10 Finishers of WYSC 2012
High Word went to Javeria Mirza (Pakistan), SHUNTERS (158) High Game went to Sinatarn Pattanasuwanna for 640.
WYSC 2012 took place at the UK Britannia Hotel in Birmingham, England from Friday December 7 to Sunday December 9. There are expected to be 99 entries in 2012 making it the most populous WYSC event yet but only 60 managed to get there. Michael McKenna sealed his victory at the tournament with a game to spare- he won game 23 to lead of 1.5 wins going into the final round. This win now means that Australia is home to more WYSC than any other nation. Australia has three, Malaysia has two and Singapore and Thailand have one apiece. Michael McKenna has also attended six out of the seven WYSC events (2007-2012), truly making him a veteran and a highly respected member of the youth Scrabble community. Past WYSC events have held trivia tournaments, however, 2012 held a warmup tournament. First place went to Arham Abidi, then following him were Alastair Richards and Michael McKenna. Game 24 of the 2012 WYSC had a high scoring tie. Sinatarn Pattansuwanna (Thailand) and Tawan Paepolsiri (Thailand) tied with 532.
WYSC 2014: Colombo Sri Lanka
Based on the scores of the top three from that country, Singapore emerged as the best team.
Although the tournament is usually held in December, it was held in August in 2014 to coincide with the Colombo Scrabble Festival. The festival began with the Sri Lanka International Scrabble Championship on the 22nd of August while the WYSC took place on the 29th. In between, the WESPA Seniors' tournament was held on the 26th. Since both the WYSC and the WESPA Seniors event had a side tournament, participants had the opportunity to take part in three consecutive international tournaments at the same venue.
Jack Durand emerged as the winner of WYSC 2014 at the end of Round 23.
2015 WYSC Perth Australia
The tenth edition of the WYSC was held in Perth, Australia from the 31st of October at the University of Western Australia. Nicholas Hong of Singapore emerged as the overall winner while Sri Lanka won the team title. By virtue of winning the WYSC, Hong qualified to take part in the WESPA Championships (formerly World Scrabble Championship) held after WYSC 2015.
The defending champion Jack Durand secured 3rd place.