World Scrabble Championship 2001

World Scrabble Championship 2001
Won by Brian Cappelletto from 88 players
November 13, 2001 — November 17, 2001
Held in Las Vegas, Nevada
Sponsored by Hasbro

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The World Scrabble Championship 2001 was the sixth World Scrabble Championship. The winner was Brian Cappelletto of the United States.

The event took place at The Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip, USA. The eighty-eight players played eight games on each of the first three days, in a Swiss tournament. As usual, the top two players then competed in a best-of-five final to decide who would become world champion.

After the Swiss tournament, the top two players were Brian Cappelletto representing the United States, with 18 wins and winning spread of +921, and Joel Wapnick, defending champion from 1999, with 17 wins and winning spread +1006. These two players thus contested the final.

In the first game of the final, Wapnick played first. Both players began by changing tiles, then exchanged straightforward bingos (ANALYSE and IRATELY respectively). Further highlights included Wapnick's and and Cappelletto's . In the final move, trailing 482-464 and with only the O remaining on his rack, Cappelletto needed to score 16 points to force a draw. Unfortunately for him, there was no such move available and, while he played the best available move ( for 13), Wapnick took the game 482-479.

The second game was less high-scoring, with only two bonuses; Wapnick's DRESSING and . Despite this, Cappelletto won the game 410-372 to level the match at 1-1.

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