Open

It seems that only something as big as a pandemic can beat David Delicata at the game he is best at, winning 1-Day Tournaments. In the spring of 2019, Delicata, who started playing competitive Scrabble in his early teens, stormed to victory after winning all 9 games of the MISO12 Early Bird. In the winter and spring of 2021, the 6-time National Champion won both of the two 1-Day Tournaments he played in.

In the fall of 2021, he 's done it again, winning the MISO13 Early Bird title one win clear of his arch-rival Theresa Brousson ,who placed second, and Ghana's Kwaku Sapong, who finished third and was the only player to make a dent in Delicata's remarkable winning streak.

Ference Gerlits of Hungary made a giant leap from an initial 15th to a final 8th position to secure the 1st Ratings Prize. Malta's octogenarian player Mario Seychell and his compatriot and fellow veteran player Anna Borg, also leapfrogged from their initial positions, the former from 16th to 12th to take the 2nd Ratings Prize, the latter from 22nd to 13th to win the 3rd Ratings Prize.

Unlike the 1-day Early Bird, which saw a repeat of the outcome of the last Early Bird, the end result of the 3-day Main Event of the 13th Malta International Scrabble Open, held on 6-8 November 2021, was marked by novelty. The champion of either division had never played and/or won in any of the past twelve editions of MISO.

In the Open Division, England's Mark Nyman never relinquished the lead he established very early on in the tournament even though by the penultimate round, his lead had been cut to wafer-thin size thanks to a remarkable comeback by Malta's top player and 12-time National Champion Theresa Brousson, who climbed up to within just a hundred or so spread points of Nyman. The latter won the final round decider against Brousson to claim his first MISO title.

It was not only Brousson' s stiff opposition that Nyman had to fend off. The top seed and former World Champion thrice beat Sweden's Goutham Jayaraman, who finished third, and drew then beat the former MISO Champion David Webb of England, who placed fourth.

In the B Division, Mario Camilleri, who has been playing Scrabble competitively since 1984, when the Malta Scrabble Club was formed, built up such a strong lead over the 25 rounds of the tournament as to be almost 'Gibsonised' for the last round, where he came up against Anna Borg. Borg's spread was too far below that of Camilleri to stand a fighting chance of first place, but a win in her last game against Camilleri was necessary to secure the runner-up spot. Beat Camilleri is what Borg did to allow Camilleri to register by far the biggest win of his playing career, keep Niyi Adebayo at arm's length in third place and show herself to be the better half of her husband, Dominic Borg, who finished fourth.

Just one place below Dominic, a newbie from Ireland, Niamh Warde took the 1st Ratings Prize. The 2nd and 3rd Ratings Prizes were won by two near newcomers, Maureen Mcdonald and Rick Heckenlaible, both representing Malta.

The 1st Ratings Prize in the Open Division was won on the strength of a strong 6th overall placing by Fidelis Olotu of England, followed by Kevin Synnott of Ireland in 9th and Nuala O'Rourke of Northern Ireland in 10th.

After missing out on a top three finish in the Early Bird and finishing third in the Main Event, Goutham Jayaraman upped his game further as he placed first in the MISO13 Late Bird, up from 3rd before the tournament.

Unlike the Early Bird and Main Event, which were decided at the last round, Jayaraman won the Late Bird hands down, winning the 16-round tournament with two rounds to spare. Neither the second seed and 12-time National Champion Theresa Brousson nor even the top seed and Main Event Champion Mark Nyman managed to make any inroads into Jayaraman's unassailable lead, losing both of their direct encounters against the tall Singaporian man now based in Sweden.

In the battle for the runner-up spot, Nyman beat Brousson in the penultimate round to edge past Malta' s number 1 player thanks to a better spread.

Another rising star reaching its zenith in the Late Bird was Malta' s Anna Borg, who after taking 3rd Ratings Prize in the Early Bird and then placing 2nd in the Main Event B Division, won 1st Ratings Prize on the strength of a highly creditable 6th overall finish, up from 17th. This was one better than the Malta Scrabble Club co-foundress Angie Andrews, who caused the tournament's greatest upset by beating Nyman on course to claiming 2nd Ratings Prize, despite losing in the second round to Albert Zammit, who took 3rd Ratings Prize.