All articles starting with W
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World revolution
World revolution: the Marxist idea that capitalism's overthrow must occur internationally, advanced by Marx, Engels, Lenin (Comintern), and Trotsky's permanent revolution, and studied academically as synchronized revolutionary waves like 1848, 1917, 1968, and post-2008 unrest.
World Riichi Championship
World Riichi Championship (WRC): international riichi mahjong tournament founded 2014, held every three years (Paris, Las Vegas, Vienna, Tokyo; New York 2028) under the WRC Rules ruleset by Sylvain Malbec; Japanese players won all four titles.
World Road Association
The World Road Association, known as PIARC, is an international organization founded in 1909 that brings together 125 member governments to share knowledge on roads and road transport.
World Robot Olympiad
The World Robot Olympiad (WRO) is an international robotics competition for students, founded in 2004, where teams build and program robots to solve seasonal challenges.
World Robot Summit
The World Robot Summit is an international robot competition held in Japan, organized by METI and NEDO under Japan's 2015 Robot Strategy, with a pre-competition in Tokyo in 2018 and a first main edition in 2021.
World Rugby
World Rugby (formerly International Rugby Football Board, 1886; renamed 2014) is the Dublin-based world governing and law-making body for rugby union, with 118 full member unions, a 53-member Council chaired by Brett Robinson, and ownership of the Rugby World Cup.
World Rugby Nations Cup
World Rugby Nations Cup: annual rugby union tournament for emerging and second-tier nations, launched 2006 in Lisbon, mostly in Bucharest; Romania won 4 titles, Uruguay 3; relaunched 2026 as World Rugby's 12-team second division.
World Rugby Rankings
World Rugby Rankings, formerly IRB World Rankings, official weekly rugby union world rankings for men (since October 2003) and women (since February 2016), using a Points Exchange system with ratings typically 0-100; home weighting removed 1 July 2026.
World Scholar's Cup
World Scholar's Cup (WSC): international academic tournament for three-student teams founded by Daniel Berdichevsky/DemiDec, first held in Korea in 2007; four events, six themed subjects, advancing to a Tournament of Champions at Yale.
World Science Festival
The World Science Festival is a New York organization founded in 2008 by physicist Brian Greene and Tracy Day, best known for its annual week-long festival.
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics
World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) is a non-profit organization of semiconductor companies, founded in 1986, that publishes monthly industry shipment statistics and biannual market forecasts.
World Senior Chess Championship
FIDE World Senior Chess Championship: annual FIDE tournament for players 50+ and 65+, four sections (Open and Women), 11-round Swiss classical format; 2025 champions include Mikhalevski and Arakhamia-Grant.
World Series
World Series: MLB's annual best-of-seven championship between the American and National League champions, first played 1903 (Boston Americans vs Pittsburgh Pirates); not held only in 1904 and 1994; 2-3-2 format since 1925.
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket (WSC), Kerry Packer's breakaway professional cricket competition of 1977-1979 on Australia's Nine Network, formed after the ACB rejected his TV rights bid; it introduced night cricket, coloured clothing, and white balls, won a High Court fight, and ended with Nine gaining the broadcast rights.
World Series Cricket Cavaliers XI
The World Series Cricket Cavaliers XI was a cricket team formed in 1978 to give WSC-contracted players not regularly selected for the main teams match play and prize money.
World Series Most Valuable Player Award
Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player Award, MLB's World Series MVP given since 1955; first winner Johnny Podres; renamed for Willie Mays in 2017; fan vote counts 20 percent; Bobby Richardson the only losing-team winner.
World Series of Darts
The World Series of Darts is a PDC invitational series taking elite darts players against regional representatives worldwide, ending with the World Series of Darts Finals.
World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker (WSOP), annual Las Vegas poker tournament series founded by Benny Binion in 1970 at Binion's Horseshoe; features the $10,000 Main Event freezeout, gold bracelets since 1976, 100 bracelet events in 2026, and record fields of over 10,000 Main Event entrants.
World Series of Poker bracelet
WSOP gold bracelet, the trophy of the World Series of Poker awarded to each tournament winner since 1976; Main Event version appraised up to $500,000; Phil Hellmuth holds a record 17.
World Series television ratings
World Series television ratings are the Nielsen audience measurements of Major League Baseball's championship on US television, tracked since 1968, from record highs near 33 to single digits.
World shooting championships
ISSF World Shooting Championships, first held Lyon 1897, are the world titles in rifle, pistol, shotgun and moving target shooting, held on a four-year all-events cycle and serving as Olympic qualifiers, with Doha 2026 opening LA28 quota allocation.
World Short Track Speed Skating Championships
World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, the ISU's annual short track world title event, first held 1976; first champions Alan Rattray and Celeste Chlapaty (USA); 2026 edition in Montreal, 2027 in Seoul.
World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships
World Short Track Speed Skating Team Championships, a defunct ISU team competition (1990-2011, 22 editions, first in Gent, last in Warszawa); South Korea led the medal table with 19 golds, ahead of Canada and China.
World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships
World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships: ISU long-track world titles per distance and team event, introduced 1996 in Hamar, held in non-Olympic years, 16 titles, Sven Kramer record 21.
World Ski Orienteering Championships
World Ski Orienteering Championships (WSOC), the IOF's world championship for ski orienteering, first held 1975 in Hyvinkää, Finland; current program Sprint, Pursuit, Middle, Sprint Relay; Sweden leads the medal table; 2026 edition in Rusutsu, Japan.
World Snooker Championship
World Snooker Championship: snooker's world title since 1927, held at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre since 1977. 32-player knockout, £2,395,000 fund, £500,000 winner's cheque; record seven modern titles for Hendry and O'Sullivan.
World Soccer (magazine)
World Soccer is a British monthly football magazine founded in London in October 1960 and published by Kelsey Media. Distinguished by international coverage, annual Player of the Year awards, ESM features, and World Cup guide specials.
World Social Forum
World Social Forum (Fórum Social Mundial), anti-neoliberal globalization gathering founded January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, opposite the Davos World Economic Forum; slogan "Another World is Possible"; first edition drew 20,000 people from 117 countries.
World Solar Challenge
The World Solar Challenge, run as the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge since 2013, is a biennial solar car race across about 3,000 km of Australia from Darwin to Adelaide.
World Space Week
World Space Week is an annual UN observance held every 4 to 10 October, proclaimed in 1999 and described as the world's largest annual space event.