2007 World Scrabble Championships
Background:
Every 2 years, since 1991, the WSC has taken place in various venues across the globe.
Israel was represented in most of the WSCs. In the first in 1991, we had a single representative (Evan Cohen). Since then, we've had 2 spots allocated to us in every WSC. Several players have filled these spots: Evan Cohen (1991, 1993, 2005), Paloma Raychbart (1993, 1997, 2005), Sam Orbaum (1995), Zelig Leader (1995), JJ Jonah (1997), Ma'or Eichler (2001).
Recently formed, WESPA, the World English Language Scrabble Players Association, has become more involved in the organisation of the WSC and is behind most of the organisation in the upcoming event.
The 9th WSC will be held in Mumbai, India from November 9th-12th, 2007. You can check out the official WSC site by clicking here.
Qualification:
Israel has been allocated 2 positions which will be filled in a World Scrabble Championships Qualifying Event (WSCQE) to be held in the Summer of 2007. The WSCQE is not an open tournament - only players eligible to represent Israel in the WSC and wishing to go may participate.
The WSCQE will use WSC rules, as was the case in previous years. As the lexicon used in the WSC is the international Scrabble dictionary (Collins), this is the word source we'll be using for any WSCQE. In addition, as was the case in the previous WSCQE, we will adopt the WSC challenge rule (i.e.there will be a 5-point deduction for each word in an unsuccessful challenge rather than a turn loss for challenging a good word).
The following criteria will be used to select the Israeli qualifiers for the WSC.
Criteria:
1. Candidates must be Israeli citizens. No person who is not an Israeli citizen can participate in the WSCQE.
2. Candidates may not have represented any country other than Israel in previous WSC events.
3. Participants must be active rated players (i.e. must have played at least 18 rated games in Israel 2 years prior to the WSCQE).
4. If there are n* or fewer candidates who wish to represent Israel in the WSC, then these candidates will automatically qualify to be Israel's representatives at the WSC.
5. The top n* finishers at the WSCQE will represent Israel at the WSC. If, for any reason, a qualifier withdraws before the 2007 WSC, then the next in line in the WSCQE shall represent Israel - according to his/her final standing in the WSCQE.
n*=the number of WSC slots awarded to Israel. Currently, n=2.
Players meeting the requirements in 1-5 must submit their candidacy to Evan Cohen by May 11th, 2007, in order to participate in the qualifying event. Once the number of candidates has been finalised, the format of the qualifying event will be determined.
