World Scrabble Championship 2003

The World Scrabble Championship 2003 was held in the Corus Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The winner was Panupol Sujjayakorn of Thailand.

World Scrabble Championship 2003
21 October 2003 – 24 October 2003
Winner	Panupol Sujjayakorn
Number of players	90
Location	Kuala Lumpur
Sponsor	Mattel

The format was notably different from previous WSCs. The tournament began with the Australian Draw system, with each player playing sixteen games over two days. On the third day the players played eight games in a King Of the Hill format. After this, the top two players competed in a best-of-five final to decide who would be the seventh World Scrabble Champion.

Prize money started at $17,500 for the winner, with all the top twenty players receiving prizes down to $200.

Results

The winner was Panupol Sujjayakorn of Thailand. This was the first time that a player won the WSC while representing a country for which English is not the first language.

Complete Results

Position	Name	Country	Win–loss	Spread	Prize (USD)
1	Sujjayakorn, Panupol	Thailand	18-6	+1461	17,500
2	Nemitrmansuk, Pakorn	Thailand	17-7	+1383	8,500
3	Perry, Andrew	England	17-7	+1202	4,000
4	Nyman, Mark	England	16-8	+975	2,500
5	Kramer, Jim	United States	16-8	+712	1,750
6	Panyasophonlert, Komol	Thailand	16-8	+418	1,000
7	Davis, Andrew	England	16-8	+188	750
8	Fernando, Naween Tharanga	Sri Lanka	15-9	+613	600
9	Allan, Paul	Scotland	15-9	+532	500
10	Adamson, Tim	United States	15-0	+438	400
11	Helen Gipson	England	15-9	+317	300
12	Geary, Jim	United States	15-9	+198	300
13	Grant, Jeff	New Zealand	15-9	-58	300
14	Appleby, Phil	England	14½-9½	+424	300
15	Litunya, Patrick	Kenya	14-10	+1043	300
16	Boys, David	Canada	14-10	+843	200
17	Wapnick, Joel	Canada	14-10	+690	200
18	Sanni, Moshood Olasunkanmi	Nigeria	14-10	+581	200
19	Cleary, Paul Stephen	Australia	14-10	+436	200
20	Warner, Howard	New Zealand	14-10	+316	200
21	Bhandarkar, Akshay	Bahrain	14-10	+315
22	Asirvatham, Ganesh	Malaysia	14-10	+144
23	Sim, Tony	Singapore	14-10	-9
24	Lipton, Bob	United States	13½-10½	+541
25	Carter, Patrick	New Zealand	13½-10½	+229
26	Hersom, Randy	United States	13-11	+738
27	Dennis, Di	England	13-11	+537
28	O'Laughlin, John	United States	13-1	+360
29	Fisher, Andrew	Australia	13-11	+286
30	Kurnia, Andy	Singapore	13-11	+270
31	Linn, Robert	United States	13-11	+251
32	Williams, Gareth	Wales	13-11	+132
33	Delicata, David	Malta	13-11	+80
34	Balogun, Rasheed Olajide	Nigeria	13-11	-55
35	Capuno, Leonardo	Philippines	13-11	-161
36	Lobo, Ralph	Oman	13-11	-195
37	Golding, Andrew	Canada	13-11	-357
38	Polatnick, Steve	United States	12½-11½	+226
39	Jackman, Bob	Australia	12-12	+666
40	Placca, Chrys	Ghana	12-12	+569
41	Ikekeregor, Dennis	Nigeria	12-12	+515
42	Willingham, Walker	United States	12-12	+248
43	Iqbal, Wajid	Pakistan	12-12	+168
44	Ndungu, Stanley Njoroge	Kenya	12-12	+126
45	Berofsky, Evan	Canada	12-12	+58
46	Kirk, Terry	England	12-12	+11
47	Khoshnaw, Karl	Kurdistan-Iraq	12-12	-173
48	Finley, Peter	England	12-12	-267
49	Anthonius, Ferdy	Indonesia	12-12	-304
50	Quao, Michael Arthur	Ghana	12-12	-350
51	Withers, Ben	United States	12-12	-757
52	Hirai, Keiichiro	Japan	12-12	-794
53	Hovelmeier, Trevor Mark	South Africa	11½-12½	+929
54	Lam, John	Malaysia	11½-12½	+120
55	Wiegand, David	United States	11-13	+367
56	Pui, Cheng Wui	Malaysia	11-13	+198
57	Chong, Aaron	Malaysia	11-13	+30
58	Mamadou, Wone	Kuwait	11-13	-209
59	Chakrabarti, Amit	United States	11-13	-243
60	Credo, Ronald	Philippines	11-13	-257
61	Hoekstra, Ron	Canada	11-13	-297
62	Holden, Stewart	England	11-13	-328
63	Lobo, Selwyn	United Arab Emirates	11-13	-342
64	Abordo, Chris	Bahrain	11-13	-453
65	Lloyd, David	Australia	11-13	-841
66	Kenas, Mark	United States	11-13	-947
67	Gruzd, Steven	South Africa	10½-13½	-270
68	Talosig, Rogelio	New Zealand	10½-13½	-480
69	Kamath, Pramit	India	10½-13½	-698
70	Gongolo, Michael	Kenya	10-14	+675
71	Kantimathi, Sam	United States	10-14	+89
72	Baker, Rich	United States	10-14	-92
73	Saldanha, Dean	Canada	10-14	-272
74	Recedes, Mario	Philippines	10-14	-467
75	Gonzalez, Ricardo V	Gulf Champion	10-14	-469
76	Manase, Joshua Otieno	Kenya	10-14	-542
77	Kpentey, Bennet	Ghana	9½-14½	-449
78	Kalumba, Paul Yandisha	Zambia	9-15	-45
79	John, Robin K.T.	Trinidad and Tobago	9-15	-125
80	Wanniarachchi, Lakshan	Sri Lanka	9-15	-232
81	Chicoine, Emanuel	Canada	9-15	-468
82	Abela, Kevin	Malta	9-15	-844
83	Chishty, Ishtiaq	Saudi Arabia	9-15	-958
84	Kuroda, Kunihiko	Japan	8-16	-1201
85	Sandu, Dan Laurentiu	Romania	8-16	-651
86	Abordo, Ferrer	Bahrain	8-16	-799
87	Bohbot, Herve	France	8-16	-844
88	Saeyorn, Sivanesan	Sri Lanka	8-16	-989
89	Esmail, Mushtak	Tanzania	7½-16½	-190
90	Kenny, Bronagh	Ireland	2-22	-3166

• FINALS:
• Game 1: Panupol 418 – Pakorn 380
• Game 2: Pakorn 495 – Panupol 384
• Game 3: Pakorn 514 – Panupol 470
• Game 4: Panupol 446 – Pakorn 433
• Game 5: Panupol 444 – Pakorn 387