page_title: World Scrabble Championship 2018
section_title: Preliminary
hierarchical_section_title: World Scrabble Championship 2018 / Results / Preliminary
caption_attribution_description: English: Nigel Richards, shortly before clinching the world champion title for the fourth time.
context_page_description: The Mattel World Scrabble Championship 2018 was a Scrabble tournament organised by Mattel and Mindsports Academy to determine the world champion in English Scrabble held from 23 to 28 October 2018.
  The event was split into two divisions according to players' World English-Language Scrabble Players' Association ratings; the top division comprised some 75 players. 35 games were played on the first four days, after which the top eight proceeded to a 3-game quarterfinals, with the winners advancing to a 5-game semifinals on the same day; the top two players, Nigel Richards and Jesse Day, played a best-of-five final the day after for the top prize of €10,000. Richards beat Day 3–1, becoming world champion for an unprecedented fourth time.
context_section_description: After 35 preliminary rounds, the top eight, which included three-time world champion Nigel Richards (2007, 2011, 2013), world champions Brett Smitheram (2016) and Wellington Jighere (2015), and 2014 runner-up Chris Lipe, advanced to the quarter-finals. The defending champion David Eldar was absent, whereas former world champions Craig Beevers (2014), Joel Wapnick (1999), and Mark Nyman (1993) were knocked out of contention.
  Source:
caption: The eventual winner Nigel Richards giving a thumbs up.
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