WORLD YOUTH SCRABBLE CHAMPIONSHIP 2008 RESULTS
Penang, Malaysia: Tuesday December 9th to Thursday December 11th 2008

1st (3000 ringgit) Charnrit Khongthanarat (Thailand)

2nd (2000 ringgit) Darren Khoo Beng Way (Malaysia)

3rd (1250 ringgit) Scott Chung (Malaysia)

4th (1000 ringgit) Ramaraj Sundraraj (Malaysia)

5th (750 ringgit) Suanne Ong (Malaysia)

6th (600 ringgit) Mohsin Ahmed (India)

7th (500 ringgit) Wanchana Jirapitikul (Thailand)

8th (400 ringgit) Samitha Amarasinghe (Sri Lanka)

9th (300 ringgit) Alastair Richards (Australia)

10th (200 ringgit) Akaradech Suppapitta (Thailand)

BEST UNDER 16 Scott Chung (Malaysia)

BEST UNDER 14 William Kang (Malaysia)

BEST UNDER 12 Victor Gwee De Ming (Singapore)

HIGH WORD Wong Zhi Yuan (Singapore) “ZANJEROS” ???

HIGH GAME Ramaraj Sundraraj (Malaysia) ???

ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD for youngest player in top 25 - Victor Gwee De Ming (Singapore)

The top three

From left to right, Scott Chung (Malaysia) :3rd place, Charnrit Khongthanarat (Thailand) : 1st place, Khoo Beng Way (Malaysia) : 2nd place.

The contestants

Fifty-eight players came together for the third World Youth Scrabble Championship in Penang, Malaysia. Two of the people in this photo are over 18. One is Wilma Vialle, the tournament director. The other is Karen Richards, the organiser. See if you can spot them.

Nice words

Wong Zhi Yuan scored a massive score for one turn, 257 for ZANJEROS. Some people have had whole game scores less than that!

A visit from David Eldar

The winner of the first WYSC, David Eldar is playing in the Island Scrabble Tournament. He dropped in to see the young fledglings. They call him daddy now.

Gibsonisation

The final playoff, best of five, is between the two top finishers after the 22 rounds. Provision has been made for Gibsonisation, which ensures that if either or both places are surely attained in an earlier round, that player will not be matched against other contenders for prizes (i.e within the top 25). Accordingly at the end of round 19, Khoo Beng Way was Gibsonised in rounds 20 and 21. After round 21, Charnrit was also assured of a place so in the last round, the Gibsonisation paired them against each other. They undoubdetdly regard this as a practice spar before the main event, which will occur after lunch in another room, with their moves relayed to the main room to be observed, admired and criticised by the audience.