Scoreboard

Scrabble

The winner of the U.S. National Scrabble Championship was amazingly not Nigel Richards. Rather it was Conrad Bassett-Bouchard of Portland, Oregon who finished with a record of 22-9 and a point spread of +812.

Two tournaments took place as part of the Colombo Scrabble Festival in Sri Lanka. The winner of the Open International Scrabble Championship was Nigel Richards (with 19.5 wins and a positive spread of 2299), while the winner of the World Youth Scrabble Championship was Jack Durand of the UK.

Chess

Magnus Carlsen claimed both titles at the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in Dubai, meaning he now wears all three world championship crowns. In the Rapid tournament, Carlsen finished with 11.0/15, just ahead of Caruana at 10.5. Also at 10.5 but trailing on tie-breakers were, in order, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, and Alexander Morozevich. In the Blitz tournament, Carlsen led with 17.0, while Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura tied for second with 16.0.

The World Open tournament in Arlington, Virginia finished with three people tied for first place: Ilya Smirin of Israel, Ilia Nyzhnyk of Ukraine, and Conrad Holt of the United States. Actually, that was down from last year, when 11 tied for first. Each of the three claimed prizes of $9,891. Smirin earned an extra $254 for beating Nyzhnyk in a tiebreak game.

In the open section of the World Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, China claimed the gold medal with 19 match points, Hungary the silver with 17 points, and India the bronze also with 17 points. In the women’s section, the winner of the gold medal was the Russian team (20 points), while the silver went to China (18 points), and the bronze to Ukraine (18 points).

FIDE has announced the schedule for the Grand-Prix 2014-2015 series and issued invitations to 11 players and three alternates. Tournaments will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan October 1-15; Tashkent, Uzbekistan October 20-November 3; Tehran, Iran February 14-28; and Moscow, Russia May 13-27. The top two players in the series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which leads to the World Chess Championship.

Mahjong

The Open European Mahjong Championship in Strasbourg, France was dominated by Japanese players, who claimed four of the top five spots. First place went to Yoshihiro Suzuki of Japan, second place to Michael Zahradnik of Germany, and third to Kazutoshi Miyake of Japan. The highest result for a Chinese player was 30th place.

Go

Yitien Chan’s trophy at the World Amateur Go Championship represents the first time on top of that event for Chinese Taipei.

The winner, on tie-breaking points, of the Toto Cup International Junior Go Championship was Nishimura Ryotaro of Japan. The runner-up was Ren Yihua of China.

Hong Seok-ui, formerly of Korea but now a resident of Japan, successfully defended his title in the Japanese Amateur Meijin tournament for the third straight year. He also won the Amateur Honinbo tournament for the second year.

Draughts

Freddy Loko of the Democratic Republic on Congo is the new African Draughts Champion.

Backgammon

Taking home the trophy at the World Backgammon Championship in Monte Carlo was Akiko Yazawa of Japan.

The winner of the inaugural U.S. Backgammon Federation Masters Divisional tournament is Peer Toftsoe.

Other

Charlie Worrall, age 10, won the Top Trumps Schools Tournament in London and is the first girl to have done so. In fact, this year, five of the 12 contestants in the Grand Final were girls. Charlie won on a Kylie Minogue Pop Stars card.

At the Ticket to Ride North American Championship, Kenneth Heilfron won seven straight games to claim the top position. Both he and runner-up, Scott Scribner, move on to the World Championships in Paris.

A world record for toppling mini-dominoes was achieved in Büdingen, Germany. The chain of 2,000 was set up on one table. Halfway through, the table was bumped (or someone breathed too hard) and the whole setup had to be started over.

New Rubik’s Cube world records were established for:

• 3×3 blindfolded (average)—28.43 seconds by Kaijun Lin at the Guangzhou Wushan Open
• 3×3 blindfolded (single)—23.68 seconds by Marcin Zalewski at the SLS Chorzow
• 3×3 one-handed 12.56 (average)—12.56 seconds by Antoine Cantin at the Toronto Open
• 4×4 Cube 24.33 (single)—24.33 seconds by Sebastian Weyer—and 3×3 fewest moves (average)—25.00 by Sébastien Auroux—at the Velbert Easter Open