World Scrabble Championship

The World Scrabble Championship is the most prestigious title in competitive English-language Scrabble. It has been held every second year since 1991, and annually since 2013. Although the official brand name and organisations of the event have changed over recent years, many Scrabble enthusiasts from more than 30 countries compete to become World Scrabble Champion. The reigning World Scrabble Champion is David Eldar, who won the title at the MSI World Championships in Nottingham, England in 2017.

Sponsorship formerly alternated between Hasbro and Mattel, respectively the owners of the Scrabble trademark in North America and the rest of the world. However, Hasbro declined to sponsor WSC 2005, and instead Mattel has organised and/or sponsored all championships since 2005. Mind Sports International also began sponsoring the event in 2013 after successfully organising their own major Scrabble tournament in Prague in 2012.

The number of players competing in the tournament has risen steadily over time, from 48 in the World Scrabble Championship 1991 to 108 in the World Scrabble Championship 2009. In 2011 it remained stable with 106 contestants. A set number of places is allocated to each competing country and it is then up to individual countries' national associations to determine which of their players will represent them. This is typically done by means of a national ratings system or qualifier tournaments or some combination of the two. A good performance by a national team according to specific criteria will earn further permanent places for that country.

The official dictionary used until 2007 is colloquially known as SOWPODS, which was used in the majority of English-language Scrabble-playing countries. It was a collection of two dictionaries: OSPD (Official Scrabble Players Dictionary), which was published in the USA, and OSW (Official Scrabble Words), published in the UK. Local tournaments used only their respective dictionary for the tournament and each contain words chiefly used and spelled in US English and UK English. SOWPODS is a combination of these two dictionaries. Since 2007, Collins supply the one and only dictionary used in the World Championship: Collins Scrabble Words, which is published in the UK. It was updated on 21 May 2015 before later being approved by WESPA for tournaments on 1 September.

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