National Scrabble Champion Defends Title, Wins Tournament

The king of American Scrabble has kept his crown, as Nigel Richards spelled his way to the 2011 National Scrabble Championship title and a $10,000 prize. Richards, 44, is a former world champion from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

You can see the final standings and trace the 31 rounds of Scrabble Richards had to play to take the 2011 title, at the tournament's website. After five days of play, he finished with a 22-9 record, and a score differential of +1532.

The second- and third-place finishers were Kenji Matsumoto of Aiea, Hawaii, and Brian Bowman of Villa Hills, Ky., respectively.

Going into the competition's final day, nearly 350 competitors from 40 states and 4 countries had played — and were being led by graduate student Jesse Day, 23, or Berkeley, Calif.

As a notice from the Scrabble Association said, "Among the words played [Tuesday] were ALEVIN (a young fish), JAUP (to splash), TZIGANE (a gypsy) and QAT (an evergreen shrub)."

The 2011 tournament took place in Dallas, Texas.

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