Zach Ansell and Noah Kalus, 2015 North American School Scrabble champions, with their coach, Cornelia Guest. The two winners will be on the Jimmy Kimmel show Friday.
Growing up, Ridgefield Library Scrabble teacher Cornelia Guest didn’t like the spell-a-word game known as Scrabble.
“I thought it was a dull game,” she said, unapologetically.
That changed in later years when she found out about tournament Scrabble, where teams play against each other in a timed event.
“The clock means it has to move along quickly. Then I thought it was the most exciting game,” said Guest, who coached five of the top eight teams this year in the 2015 North American School Scrabble Championship at Hasbro headquarters in Pawtucket, R.I.
Her top $10,000-prize students will appear on television Friday at 11:30 p.m. as guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live, on ABC TV.
“It’s been quite a weekend,” said Guest, who has been teaching Scrabble teams at the library since 2005.
Scrabble is a game that requires a lot of dictionary study and practice.
“The kids come every week and we practice online. I give them word studies and show them special hooks, like words that take an s to become plural,” Guest said.
Like the word afar, for example, which can also be afars.
“I’ve been working a lot with the dictionary,” Guest said.
On Monday, May 18 at Hasbro’s headquarters, 13-year-old Noah Kalus of New Paltz, N.Y., who studies Scrabble under Guest, and his partner, 11-year-old Zach Ansell of Los Angeles, Calif., won the $10,000 top prize, together with an
Fiona Fisher Sleigh and Emma Baughman, seventh-place finishers and top girls team, with John Chew, co-president of the North American Scrabble Association, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, 2014 National Scrabble champion, and Danielle Armbrust of Hasbro.
Intel tablet, giant trophies, and the invitation to the Jimmy Kimmel show.
The show taped Wednesday night.
“I’ve been coaching Noah since he was 9,” Guest said. “For two years, Noah’s family drove him all the way from New Paltz to Ridgefield every week for the club.”
The past two years Noah has practiced primarily online, as his partner, Zach, lives in Los Angeles. Noah was also this year’s New England School Scrabble champion at a tournament held in April at the Ridgefield Library.
Another Ridgefield Library team, eighth graders Emma Baughman and Fiona Fisher Sleigh, finished seventh. They were the top-placing girls in the entire competition, which drew more than 100 fourth to eighth graders from across the United States and Canada.
The girls live in Ridgefield and have been playing at the Ridgefield Library club since they were fifth graders.
“Emma and Fiona had a tough start in the championship,” said Guest, “but they fought back to be in the top 10, winning trophies and prize money.”
Guest’s sixth team, sixth graders Ellie Carter from Ridgefield and Sophie Guo from Katonah, N.Y., won three games but were out of the money.
“These girls were playing in their first national championship as a team and did very well,” Guest said. “Look out for them next year.”
The Ridgefield Library Scrabble Club runs every Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 6:30. It is open to fourth through eighth graders at all skill levels, whether interested in casual play or competition. All equipment is provided.
“The kids have lots of fun,” said Guest, “and if you want to compete, this is how to start.”
Noah is the library’s third student to win the national championship.
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