Back to 2001 WSC

2001 World SCRABBLE® Championship: Team Canada

Eight players will represent Canada at the next World SCRABBLE^® Championship. The increase is due to the outstanding performance of the Canadian team at the WSC99. Their previous allotment of 6 players has increased to 7. Representing Canada, Joel Wapnick earns an automatic entry as the current World SCRABBLE^® Champion and is their eighth player.

The Qualifying Period (QP) shall begin May 1, 2000 and end May 31, 2001.

• The FIVE players who have earned the highest PEAK RATINGS (PR) during the QP shall automatically be invited. However, it is only their PR AFTER having played a required total of 52 games in Open Rated Tournaments during the QP that will count toward qualifying for the WSC. The Canadian Champion, to be determined in the fall of 2000, will also be eligible, and be included among the 5 players with high PR, except if it is Wapnick. Should the Canadian Champion NOT have one of the top 5 PR, then s/he and the top 4 PR players only shall be the designated WSC invitees. [Ron Hoekstra won the Canadian Championship on November 20th, 2000.]

• A Qualifying Tournament will be held some time soon after May 31, 2001 to determine the remaining two players invited to the WSC01. [The QT will be held in Toronto on June 9th and 10th. Contact John Chew at jjchew@math.utoronto.ca for further details.] The top two finishers of this event will qualify for the WSC. Any Canadian achieving a PR of at least 1800 during the QP AND who has played at least 26 Open Rated Tournament games during the QP will qualify to play in this QT. In addition, anyone whose PR is among the top 16 (not including those who already qualified on the basis of their PR) will also qualify for the QT. Note: the QT shall be SOWPODS and use whatever challenge rule is to be used at the WSC01.

• [This paragraph added 2000-12-03.] It is NSA policy that mid-tournament ratings published as part of the split rating of long tournaments have no official significance. Mid-tournament ratings will therefore not be considered in the calculation of Peak Ratings.

• Players who forfeit tournament games under suspicious circumstances will have their games for that event nullified towards earning a PR.

• If any of the 7 qualified players (not counting the current World SCRABBLE^® Champion) decides not to play in the 2001, his/her place will be given to the 3rd place player of the QT, and so on.

According to these rules the following eight players have qualified:

• Joel Wapnick (reigning World Champion)
• Ron Hoekstra (reigning Canadian Champion)
• Adam Logan (top QR)
• Robin Pollock Daniel (2nd QR)
• David Boys (3rd QR)
• James Cherry (4th QR)
• Zev Kaufman (top at QT)
• Chris Sykes (2nd at QT)

If any of these players are unable to attend the WSC, they will be replaced by alternates chosen according to standings at the QT beginning with John Chew (3rd at the QT, see below).

The 15-game qualifying tournament took place on Saturday, June 9th and Sunday, June 10th at Earl Bales Community Centre in Toronto. It was directed by World Champion Joel Wapnick and past World Champion David Boys and consisted of a 13-game round robin followed by two rounds paired according to a complicated but predetermined algorithm. Note: as no record was kept of individual game scores (only spread), the tables that follow arbitrarily assign the winner a score of 400 points.

Rank Seed Name (online)   Wins  Sprd For Agn
  1    1  Zev Kaufman     11.0  +751 388 338
  2    5  Chris Sykes     10.5  +938 388 325
  3    4  John Chew        9.5  +505 376 343
  4    6  Bernard Gotlieb  9.0  +254 360 344
  5    3  Evan Berofsky    9.0  +191 349 337
  6   12  Craig Rowland    8.0  +177 376 364
  7    2  Albert Hahn      8.0  +124 363 355
  8    8  Jim Nanavati     8.0   -98 366 372
  9    7  Tim Anglin       7.0   -79 373 378
 10    9  Andrew Golding   6.0  -197 346 359
 11   10  Don Malcolm      5.0  -544 338 374
 12   14  Fern Lindzon     5.0  -546 352 388
 13   11  Randall Thomas   5.0  -595 337 377
 14   13  Leah Katz        4.0  -881 328 387

 1  Zev Kaufman     L12 W09 W08 W14 L06 W10 W04 W07 W13 W02 W11 L05 W03 W03 L14 
                    390 400 400 400 266 400 400 400 400 400 400 377 400 400 390 
 2  Chris Sykes     W11 W10 L13 L08 W04 W14 L09 W06 T03 L01 W07 W12 W05 W06 W05 
                    400 400 323 395 400 400 383 400 400 318 400 400 400 400 400 
 3  John Chew       W13 W11 L06 W10 W09 W12 L08 W14 T02 L04 W05 W07 L01 L01 W04 
                    400 400 377 400 400 400 378 400 400 216 400 400 353 323 400 
 4  Bernard Gotlieb W10 W08 L11 W09 L02 W06 L01 W13 W05 W03 L12 W14 W07 L05 L03 
                    400 400 297 400 131 400 316 400 400 400 375 400 400 316 372 
 5  Evan Berofsky   W06 W13 W14 W11 L08 W07 W10 W12 L04 L09 L03 W01 L02 W04 L02 
                    400 400 400 400 389 400 400 400 197 384 198 400 222 400 249 
 6  Craig Rowland   L05 W07 W03 W12 W01 L04 W14 L02 W11 L13 L08 W09 W10 L02 L07 
                    284 400 400 400 400 342 400 302 400 392 398 400 400 333 386 
 7  Albert Hahn     W14 L06 W12 W13 L10 L05 W11 L01 W09 W08 L02 L03 L04 W11 W06 
                    400 349 400 400 189 345 400 317 400 400 399 311 341 400 400 
 8  Jim Nanavati    W09 L04 L01 W02 W05 L11 W03 W10 W12 L07 W06 L13 L14 L09 W11 
                    400 346 298 400 400 359 400 400 400 256 400 323 339 368 400 
 9  Tim Anglin      L08 L01 W10 L04 L03 W13 W02 L11 L07 W05 W14 L06 W12 W08 L10 
                    353 310 400 382 309 400 400 391 358 400 400 367 400 400 322 
10  Andrew Golding  L04 L02 L09 L03 W07 L01 L05 L08 W14 L12 W13 W11 L06 W13 W09 
                    317 217 399 230 400 355 336 255 400 350 400 400 335 400 400 
11  Don Malcolm     L02 L03 W04 L05 L12 W08 L07 W09 L06 W14 L01 L10 W13 L07 L08 
                    328 368 400 151 365 400 384 400 380 400 204 373 400 191 320 
12  Fern Lindzon    W01 L14 L07 L06 W11 L03 L13 L05 L08 W10 W04 L02 L09 L14 W13 
                    400 383 337 261 400 374 393 300 299 400 400 364 272 295 400 
13  Randall Thomas  L03 L05 W02 L07 W14 L09 W12 L04 L01 W06 L10 W08 L11 L10 L12 
                    207 316 400 364 400 316 400 302 349 400 255 400 221 382 344 
14  Leah Katz       L07 W12 L05 L01 L13 L02 L06 L03 L10 L11 L09 L04 W08 W12 W01 
                    251 400 223 329 220 336 325 373 270 340 349 310 400 400 400 

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