Achievements

Joel Wapnick, won against his competitor from England three games to one in a best-of-five contest in Australia. Wapnick's opening move was brilliant because he managed to use all seven tiles to form the word "isogriv" - a reference line on a map. His opponent, Mark Nyman, countered with "laicized" - which means to be free from clerical control. But Wapnick girded his loins, so to speak, and went on to win 403 to 402. His final word was "girt" - the past tense of gird.

More than 100 players from 35 countries took part in the weekend tournament. Wapnick won the equivalent of $22,500 Canadian. It's not the first time he's made it to the world series of Scrabble. He took second place six years ago. Wapnick began playing competitively in 1975, and won the North American Championship in 1983.

No other player has reached enough WSC finals as much as what Wapnick could manage to do by finishing second in 1993 and 2001. Wapnick and Adam Logan (WSC 2005, USNSC 1996, CNSC 1996, 2006, 2008) are the only players so far to have won the WSC, the US NSC and the CNSC. He also placed second in the National Scrabble Championship in 1992 and third in 1988. Wapnick also won the US National Scrabble Championship in 1983 and the Canadian National Scrabble Championship in 1998(1), along with a string of other events.