2005 WSC

2005 World SCRABBLE® Championship: Team Canada

The NSA congratulates the following players who have earned the right to represent Canada at the 2005 World SCRABBLE® Championship.

Qualified as 2003 Canadian Champion

When David Boys won the 2003 CNSC, he won a place on the 2005 Canadian WSC team.

David Boys

Qualified on Rating

The following four players qualified by having the highest peak tournament ratings (QR) during the qualification period.

Joel Wapnick

Ron Hoekstra

Zev Kaufman

Dean Saldanha

Qualified by Acclamation

Two more team members and the ranking of all alternate players were originally supposed to be determined at a qualifying tournament (QT) on July 23-24. However, at the 2005 CNSC on June 9-11, all players hoping to qualify at the QT unanimously supported a proposal by QR qualifier Zev Kaufman that two-time Canadian Champion and overwhelming QT favorite Adam Logan be given an automatic place on the Canadian team. Now ratified by the NSA, this proposal will mean that Adam will be saved the expense of travelling to the QT; and the remaining QT players will not have their final rankings affected by the magnitude of their losses to Adam.

Adam Logan

Qualified by Tournament

Albert Hahn qualified as the winner of the QT held on July 23–24, 2005. The following players are the team alternates in the order in which they may be called upon: Tony Leah, Andrew Golding, Sinna Vijayakumar, George MacAulay, Emanuel Chicoine, Steve Ozorio.

Qualification Rules

Here are the rules by which the players qualified for the team:

The qualification process for Team Canada was announced July 1st, 2004. Once at least one player has potentially qualified on rating, this page will be kept updated with current qualification standings.

1. These rules describe how seven players will qualify to represent Canada at the 2005 World SCRABBLE® Championship (WSC).

2. Qualification is based on a player's tournament activity during the Qualifying Period (QP), which begins on July 1st, 2004 and ends on June 1st, 2005. A player's peak rating (PR) is their highest tournament rating during the QP, not including mid-tournament ratings at split-rated tournaments, or any ratings earned before a player has played at least 44 games in Open Rated Tournaments during the QP.

3. As in past years, the winner of the first Canadian Championship held after the last WSC qualifies. This time, David Boys, who won the 2003 Canadian Championship, which took place after the 2003 WSC, qualifies.

4. A Qualifying Tournament (QT) will be held on July 23-24th, 2005 at a location to be determined by the usual vote of players who have registered as of May 15th. The top two finishers from the QT will qualify. The QT will use the same lexicon and challenge rule as the WSC. To play in the QT, a player must have played at least 22 games in Open Rated Tournaments during the QP.

5. The remaining four places will go to those players who have the highest PRs.

6. All players who wish to qualify to play in the WSC must register with John Chew by June 8th, 2005, regardless of on what basis they think they will qualify. As of when they register, players must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents. A player who registers for the qualification process but then without good reason withdraws from it after the end of the QP or does not play in the WSC will not be able to qualify based on PR at the next World SCRABBLE® Championship. At the end of the QP, registered players who have qualified based on PR will be so informed, and up to 24 additional registered players will be invited to participate in the QT. If there are more than 24 players who want to participate in the QT, only those with the highest PR will play.

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

8. If any of the seven qualified players decides not to play in the WSC, their place will be given to the 3rd place player at the QT, and so on.

The following players have registered for the qualification process: Adam L., Albert H., Andrew G., Dave B., Dean S., Emanuel C., Evan B., Fern L., George M., Jeff P., Jim N., Joel W., John C., Kristen C., Ron H., Steve O., Tony L., S. Vijay, Yvonne L., Zev K.

As a result of a vote held among players registered as of 2005-05-15, the qualifying tournament will be held at Earl Bales Community Centre in Toronto. Voting in favour of Toronto were: Adam L, Fern L, John C, Steve O, Tony L, S Vijay and Yvonne L. Voting for other locations and thereby adding to their carryover votes (new totals shown in parentheses) if they attend this year were Albert H (3), Andrew G (3), and Emanuel C (2). Past holders of carryover votes who did not vote this year were David B (1), Dean S (1), Joel W (1), Randall T (1). The QT will be codirected by Joel W. Further details on the format will be announced when the registration period ends and the number of players is known, but for now players should be prepared to play roughly from 9:00 to 6:00 on each of Saturday, July 23rd and Sunday, July 24th.

Current team qualification standings and Current QT qualification standings were updated monthly, with the publication of each new ratings list.

Here are the results of the QT:

Rank Seed Name (online)     Wins Cumul OldR NewR Chng For Agn  Hi
  1     3 HAHN ALBERT       10.0  +904 1762 1829  +67 449 374 595
  2     4 LEAH TONY          8.0  +364 1742 1770  +28 406 378 479
  3     5 GOLDING ANDREW     7.0   +91 1733 1748  +15 421 414 528
  4     7 VIJAYAKUMAR SINNA  6.0  -297 1658 1683  +25 398 420 460
  5     2 MACAULAY GEORGE    5.0  +250 1797 1744  -53 421 402 516
  6     1 CHICOINE EMANUEL   5.0  -392 1798 1746  -52 405 436 512
  7     6 OZORIO STEVE       4.0  -920 1699 1669  -30 376 446 487

 1  HAHN ALBERT       W02 W05 B-- L03 W04 W06 W07 B-- W07 W06 W04 L03 W02 W03 
                      B-- 
                      407 484  +0 344 433 511 595  +0 527 383 394 445 424 444 
                       +0 
 2  LEAH TONY         L01 L06 W07 W04 W05 B-- L03 W07 B-- W05 W06 W04 L01 L04 
                      W03 
                      307 387 479 453 420  +0 394 402  +0 425 471 323 370 423 
                      425 
 3  GOLDING ANDREW    W05 B-- L04 W01 L06 W07 W02 L05 L06 W07 B-- W01 W04 L01 
                      L02 
                      437  +0 372 369 370 435 434 395 421 528  +0 448 504 439 
                      323 
 4  VIJAYAKUMAR SINNA B-- W07 W03 L02 L01 W05 W06 L06 W05 B-- L01 L02 L03 W02 
                      L07 
                       +0 442 421 343 398 415 417 351 433  +0 366 321 379 460 
                      422 
 5  MACAULAY GEORGE   L03 L01 W06 L07 L02 L04 B-- W03 L04 L02 W07 B-- W06 W07 
                      L06 
                      391 363 516 436 333 408  +0 498 419 301 422  +0 477 477 
                      433 
 6  CHICOINE EMANUEL  L07 W02 L05 B-- W03 L01 L04 W04 W03 L01 L02 L07 L05 B-- 
                      W05 
                      262 487 324  +0 416 377 399 502 512 377 465 377 313  +0 
                      459 
 7  OZORIO STEVE      W06 L04 L02 W05 B-- L03 L01 L02 L01 L03 L05 W06 B-- L05 
                      W04 
                      487 390 254 471  +0 305 378 363 295 410 327 438  +0 321 
                      445