The World Scrabble Championship 1991 was the first World Scrabble Championship. The winner was Peter Morris, a Canadian, representing the United States.

Plans for a World Scrabble Championship had formed as early as 1986/87. After Coleco

Coleco

Coleco is an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar and...

 bought Selchow and Righter

Selchow and Righter

Selchow and Righter was a 19th century Bay Shore, New York game manufacturer best known for the games Parcheesi and Scrabble.It dates back to 1867when it was founded as E.G. Selchow & Co...

, the company announced that they were interested in helping players to organize a "World-Class Open" in 1988. At the 1987 Nationals, John Williams announced that the first World Scrabble Championship would be held the following summer in New York. It would be 1991, however, before
it became a reality.

The 48 players were separated into random groups of 6 and played round robins within their groups. The top 2 players from each group then played a knockout to produce two finalists who played a best-of-three finals.

Morris and Cappelletto split their first two games then met for a final game to decide it all. On his tenth move, Cappelletto made a rare blunder by playing the phony SMAIL instead of CLAIMS. The move may have cost him the championship. As it was, Morris pulled out a complicated end game for a 4-point win and the first world title.

Complete Results

Position	Name	Country	Prize (USD United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies.... )
1	Morris, Peter	United States	10,000
2	Cappelletto, Brian	United States	5,000
3	Boys, David	Canada	2,500
4	Edley, Joe	United States	1,000
5	Tiekert, Ron	United States	500
6	Cansfield, Joyce	United Kingdom
7	Simmons, Sandie	United Kingdom
8	Benjamin, Larry	South Africa
9	Fisher, Stephen	Canada
10	Southwell, Charlie	United States
11	Finley, Peter	England
12	Cohen, Evan	Israel
13	Carroll, Charlie	United States
14	Elbourne, Peter	Malta
15	Warusawitharana, Missaka	Sri Lanka
16	Nderitu, Patrick Gitonga	Kenya
17	Grant, Jeff	New Zealand
18	Sapong, Kwaku	Ghana
19	Holgate, John	Australia
20	Fisher, Andrew	United Kingdom
21	Spate, Clive	United Kingdom
22	Nyman, Mark	England
23	Violett, Bob	United Kingdom
24	Schonbrun, Lester	United States
25	Sigley, Michael	New Zealand
26	Kane, Alistair	Australia
27	Wapnick, Joel	Canada
28	Pratesi, Diane	United Kingdom
29	Filio, Roland	Philippines
30	Donkoh, George	Ghana
31	Brown, Christine	Éire
32	Harridge, Barry	Australia
33	Appleby, Phil	England
34	Butler, Lynne	New Zealand
35	Lawrie, Glenys	Australia
36	Felt, Robert	United States
37	Filio, Candido	Philippines
38	Rowe, Dennis	European Community
39	Saldanha, Norbert	United Arab Emirates
40	Saldanha, Allan	United Kingdom
41	Sim, Tony	Singapore
42	Berger, Averil	South Africa
43	Thobani, Shafique	Kenya
44	Ismal, Muhammed	Malaysia
45	Cleary, Paul Stephen	Australia
46	Thompson, Martin	United Kingdom
47	Levine, Eli	South Africa
48	Nakai, Ken	Japan

• Finals
• Game 1: Morris 463 - Cappelletto 349
• Game 2: Cappelletto 368 - Morris 301
• Game 3: Morris 371 - Cappelletto 367