"Scrabble Champ Heads to Australia"

by Carolyn Dryer

     Until he was injured in a traffic accident and felt the pain of medical bills,
Jim Geary made his living play poker at various Indian gaming casinos around the
Valley.
     Today, the 32-year-old Glendale resident has health, vacation and retirement
benefits through his full-time job with Honeywell as a computer programmer.  But he
still keeps his hand in the poker games twice a week just for pleasure.  He was headed
for a poker tournament Sunday and remarked that he spends five to ten times more hours
playing poker than he does playing Scrabble.
     Although he's a formidable opponent in the game of poker, Geary is even more
intimidating when it comes to Scrabble(r), which he considers a sport.  He's ranked
fourth in the United States but when he begins playing in the Scrabble(r) World
Championship Nov. 3 in Melbourne, Australia, he goes in ranked number two on the United
States' World Team.  Teams from 40 countries will be competing in 21 games at the 
Carlton Crest Hotel in Melbourne.  The final two players will try to take the top
prize in a best-of-five playoff.  Geary joins 12 other Americans on the team and he
said he'd like nothing better than to bring the World Championship back to the desert.
     His goal is "to be world champion.  I know I can.  I know mathematically I can
do it.  Then I want to win the national championship next year."
     That's where the major money is - $25,000 was paid to the 1998 North American
champion compared to the $15,000 that will be awarded to the World Champion at the
tournament's end Nov. 7.
     The Phoenix native is described as "focused" by his wife, Jane, whom he met
at a Scrabble(r) tournament in Texas four years ago.  She said that although she
is considered a good Scrabble(r) player, she does not play with the same intensity
as her husband, especially now with a 1-year daughter to look after.  She also teaches
part-time at Peoria Elementary School.
     Geary's focus earned him the title of Arizona State University and University of
Arizona chess champion while attending those schools.  During his college days, he was
also the chess champion of five states[1].  This past summer, Geary was in the "Jeopardy"
pool for the Valley.  Just 16 qualified from the 1000-person pool.
     His goal for the next couple weeks, however, is to bring home the world Scrabble(r)
title, then begin working toward capturing the United States national championship.
     "America's the best country," Geary said.  "The top four finishers in the 1997
were from America and finals people are out of North America."
     If Geary doesn't win the world or national championship, it won't be for the lack
of trying.
     He's spent about 1000 hours filling shoeboxes with words.  In each box, Geary has
10,000 words and their meanings printed out on 3-inch by 5-inch index cards.  That's
60,000 words contained in the Official Scrabble(r) Player's Dictionary - American and
British.
     In his seven years of being a serious Scrabble player, Geary has learned to read
every word.  In addition, he has flash cards for every word he doesn't know in the
British and American dictionaries.
     If you've had the occasion to be standing in line at the movie theater behind
Geary and his wife, you've probably witnessed a study session.  Geary uses every
spare moment to memorize the words and Jane Geary is his willing accomplice.  She's the
one holding the cards.
     It's not that Geary is a word nerd.  Although he can spell all the words in the 
dictionaries and tell you if they're nouns, verbs or adjectives, Geary admits the only
reason he's interested in the words is because "that's what you use in Scrabble(r)."[2]
     Words like jessant.  That's not even listed in a regular dictionary because it
is not used in ordinary conversation or even in writing.  But Geary knows how to spell
it and he knows what it means along with the 9,999 other unfamiliar and little-used
words.
     For Geary, it's the competition which drives his desire to succeed at the game.
Just like poker.
     To follow the progress of Geary and other players in the world tournament, go to
the internet and click on info@scrabble-assoc.com.
     For those interested in becoming a member of the North American Scrabble(r)
Association, visit the website at www.scrabble-assoc.com or write to NSA, PO Box 700,
Greenport, NY, 11944.

Last Modified 2/7/00

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