The Australian Masters and State Challenge Trophy was held in Canberra. This is a selective event comprising twenty top players as Masters and twenty-one players representing seven states in the State Challenge Trophy. This was the twentieth incarnation of this event whose format was devised by Andrew Fisher in 2005. Two players have competed in all twenty, Carmel Dodd and Rod Talbot.
The Masters winner was Edward Okulicz. The winning state was New South Wales and the best individual player was Dianne Brumby.
This event has concluded in Kenya.
The winner is Dineth Fernando representing Australia. Dineth is attending school in Melbourne and has done very well in our Australian tournaments since he arrived.
Winning WYSC is a superb achievement, as he battled it out over 24 rounds, and in the third day playing against top players repeatedly. Australia can be very proud of the way that Dineth played for us and we extend our congratulations to him. Well done all the young players from around the world. Samuel Crispin from England and Suyash Manchali from India came second and thurd.
See all prizes at
This is the fourth time that WYSC has been won by an Australian.
2006 David Eldar
2011 Anand Bharadwaj
2012 Michael McKenna
2026 Dineth Fernando
Australian Youth Scrabble Championship
Top 3 places
This year the format was open to all youth on Saturday, then the top eight played a round robin on Sunday. 25 players took part and NSW, ACT, QLD and VIC took part. Prizes were awarded thus:
Sportsmanship Award - Oriana Beecham (QLD)
Best Provisionally Rated Player - Huy Lam (NSW)
High Word Score: Eric Lam (NSW) - GRINDING - 131
High Game Score: Phi Long Ma (NSW) - 601
Highest Rating Gain (on Saturday): Kelvin Korn (NSW)
Under 10
Runner Up: Oliver Klistorner (NSW)
Winner: Lucas Luu (NSW)
Under 13
Runner Up: Jithuni Vidana (VIC)
Winner: Ryder Lo (NSW)
Finalist Medals:
Oliver Klistorner (NSW)
Eric Phan (NSW)
Kelvin Korn (NSW)
Ryder Lo (NSW)
Lucas Luu (NSW)
Final top three
Third Place: Ashwin Page (QLD)
Runner Up: Nathan Tang (NSW)
Winner: Dineth Fernando (VIC)
Australasian Open
New Zealand and Australia used to get together on Norfolk Island for friendly Scrabble competition. Later there was the ongoing Trans Tasman competition which in 2026 is in Brisbane.
2026 saw the inaugural tournament of what will become an ongoing tradition. 2026 was the turn for New Zealand to host it and 11½ Australian players took part and were very appreciative of the hospitable and welcoming NZ Scrabble community. The event was won by Howard Warner who is well known here in Australia. Adam Kretschmer was Australia's top placed player, coming third.
Play from a featured table most rounds were streamed on the Scrabble NZ YouTube Channel and the event was
WESPA rated.
The Victorian Championship had a substantial prize pool and was held at Novotel Preston. 40 players took part including visitors from New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland
See Results
Causeway Challenge
The Causeway Challenge came back bigger and better, in Thailand for the first time. There were 440 players who played 36 rounds over four days. Australians love this event and so we had 34 players there. The Causeway Champion was our own David Eldar, who has now got on top of the formidable Nigel Richards to become the number one rated Scrabble player in the world.
David Eldar Premier Champion
Other prizewinners:
Tony Hunt 8th, D divisionJyoti Chadha 6th, D divisionCaroline Polak Scowcroft 5th, E division
The Summit Cup is a selective event for 24 players in Malta in December administered by WESPA. The
criteria
make it difficult for Australians to qualify. Race to the Summit
2026 Trans Tasman
The Trans Tasman is a biennial event where an Australian team plays a New Zealand team. In 2026 12 Australians will play 12 New Zealand players over 24 games and this will be hosted in Australia,
in Queensland.
For the first time there will be a Youth Trans Tasman alongside the adult event. Nine young Australians will play three New Zealand players over three days. There will be 22 rounds in all which is a double round robin of all 12 players, where the games of Australia vs New Zealand will count for team tallies.
