19-year-old Norwegian takes Monopoly world title

A 19-year-old Norwegian student captured the title of the Monopoly World Championship Thursday in Las Vegas.

Bjorn Halvard Knappskog beat 25-year-old Geoff Christopher of New Zealand in the tournament’s final match, winning the Norwegian $20,580 in (real) prize money – the total amount used in a standard Monopoly game.

The other finalists won nothing beyond the trip that brought each of the 41 competitors to the Caesars Palace hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip to represent their home countries as national champions.

“(I’m) the most surprised you could ever be,” Knappskog told The Associated Press. “I think this was a really good final. It was the best game I played in the whole tournament.”

After taking out 24-year-old Russian Oleg Korostelev, Knappskog bankrupted American champion Rick Marinaccio, a 26-year-old corporate lawyer from Buffalo, N.Y., who was trying to become the first U.S. player to win the board game championship since 1974.

Knappskog said he planned to take a helicopter tour Friday night of the Grand Canyon and the Las Vegas skyline, then visit friends in Los Angeles before returning home from his first trip to the United States.

The world tournament, held periodically and last staged in Tokyo in 2004, began Wednesday at Caesars Palace with players from 41 different countries. Games were played in English, with interpreters on hand to help players who spoke different languages negotiate trades with one another.