Mark Selby Open, losing 1–4. Selby won his first ranking title of the 2017/18 season by retaining the International Championship after surviving a fightback from Mark Allen, who trailed 3–8 and 7–9 in the final but the Englishman prevailed 10–7. As 2017 World Snooker Champion, Selby automatically qualified for the 2017 Champion of Champions. However, he lost in the quarter-finals to Luca Brecel by a scoreline of 4–6. At the 2017 Shanghai Masters, Selby crashed out to 2011 finalist Mark Williams in the quarter-finals 3–5. Selby's reign as the UK champion came to an end with a 3–6 defeat to Scott Donaldson
World Scrabble Championship 2016 players, Brett Smitheram and Mark Nyman, played a best-of-five final the day after for the top prize of €7,000. Smitheram beat Nyman 3–0. The World Championship was held in conjunction with that of Scrabble in other languages. The MSI World Scrabble Championship 2016 was held from 31 August to 4 September 2016 under the auspices of Mindsports International and sponsored by Mattel and HarperCollins (the publisher of the official lexicon used in play), as part of the Mindsports International 2016 Championships. The playing venue was the Lille Grand Palais. There were two divisions based on players' WESPA ratings: A (1700