New Zealand player Alastair Richards has won the WESPA world Scrabble championship final.
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Richards beat Australia's David Eldar in the final, four games to three, in a close match in the "virtual gladiators" tournament.
"The lead seesawed throughout," Howard Warner, president of the NZ Association of Scrabble Players, said in a statement.
Richards, also an Australian, moved to New Zealand to begin working as a doctor in Auckland.
The World English-language Scrabble Players' Association (WESPA) represents the interests of international competitors and national Scrabble bodies across the globe.
The championship was held online for the first time due to travel restrictions.
Going into the tournament, Richard was ranked number 11 in the world and his final opponent Eldar second.
Another New Zealand player, Nigel Richards - no relation to Alastair Richards, Warner said - has also won the world Scrabble championship six times.