Talk:World Scrabble Championship 2005

Kurdistan-Iraq
Why is this name used by the WSC? Rich  Farmbrough 12:42, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

"Kurdistan-Iraq" in the WSC is an anomaly. This can be attributed to the desire of the promoters, Mattel, to see as many countries as possible represented in the WSC, for publicity purposes. The justification for the rationalisation of the inclusion of "Kurdistan-Iraq" has been weakened since the political changes in Iraq arising from the invasion by the United States and others. Another former anomaly, which was removed in WSC 2005, was the invitation issued to the winner of the Gulf Championship over several WSCs.

The current basis for inviting a country to send participants in the WSC is that it must have established a national association (or similar body) which can oversee a selection process, although the organisers have tended to exercise some discretion.