2009 Monopoly World Championship
A Look at Tournament Monopoly
Apr 17, 2009 Matthew McFarland
Move over Texas Hold’em there’s a new game in town. Monopoly is coming to Vegas baby!
That’s right, Monopoly, the family game that has been around for seventy-four years has become the world’s new tournament sensation. National competitions stretch the world over, and they all culminate in the Monopoly World Championship. The 2009 event will be held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada running October 20 to October 22.
Brief History
Hasbro has been hosting Monopoly World Championships since 1973 in various cities all around the world. Over the years, representatives from thirty-five countries have participated in the World Championship. The last champion, Antonio Zafra of Spain, was crowned in 2004.
2009 United States Monopoly Championship
The United States Championship took place earlier this week on the 14th and 15 at Union Station in Washington D.C. Twenty-four contestants were selected to participate through various qualifying criteria. Players qualified at monopoly.com by taking the US Monopoly Quiz and scoring 80% (16 of 20 questions), those who did were invited to answer five open-ended essay question for further review by a panel of judges.
Questions included picking the best possible move in a given situation in the eyes of Hasbro, the game’s creator, and their available strategy guide on monopoly.com. Players could only try for a score of 80% once a day during the qualifying period. Based on quiz scores, and answers to the essay questions, seventy-five players were invited to play in the qualifying sessions at pogo.com in March. Each round was two games against an opponent in a private room using the Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition (Hasbro).
Qualifying Criteria
- Score 80% on US Monopoly Quiz (16 of 20)
- Answer five (5) open-ended essay questions
- Play online at pogo.com
- Must be 21 as of April 14, 2009
Games played during the qualifying sessions used traditional Monopoly tournament scoring. The top twenty-three players from the qualifying sessions and the reigning National Champion were then invited to play live for the United States Monopoly Championship. The champion, Richard Marinaccio from Sloan, New York was awarded $20,580 (USD) in prize money (the amount of money in a Monopoly game), and a trip to Las Vegas to play in the Monopoly World Championship.
Other National Monopoly Championships
In 2009, twenty-three other countries have hosted or will be hosting National Monopoly Championships to crown their respective champions and send them off to Vegas for a shot at the World Championship. As of now, over forty players worldwide have currently qualified for the World Championship.
National Monopoly Championships
- United States
- Canada
- Mexico
- Australia
- New Zealand
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- France
- Denmark
- Austria
- Belgium
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Finland
- Latvia
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Sweden
- Malta
- Turkey
- China
- Japan
- Taiwan
- Singapore
Anyone with a love for one of the world’s most popular board games can enter, just qualify, play, win, and take home all the money in the bank.
Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition
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