The French-language Scrabble champion doesn't speak French
July 22, 2015
More French than the French themselves! Nigel Richards, 48, a native of New Zealand and resident of Malaysia won the French-language Scrabble world championships in Belgium on Monday, despite not speaking a word of French. He beat out 74 other players.
"AMAZING!" the French Scrabble Federation tweeted in English after Richards's win. "Nigel, I love you."
Richards, who is already three-time English-language Scrabble world champion, six-time US Scrabble champion and six-time UK Scrabble champion, does not speak French, but spent nine weeks memorizing the official French Scrabble dictionary before the competition.
In the three-hour final round, he played against native French speaker Schelick Ilagou Rekawe from Gabon. Richards beat Rekawe two games to nothing with two "triple-word score" boxes, and successfully challenged Rekawe on a word. Triple-word score boxes are the rarest and most powerful spots on the Scrabble board.
Richards's mother told reporters that while her son was slow to read, he was always very adept with numbers. The French Scrabble Federation also told AFP that Richards is proficient at planning his moves without having to shuffle his pieces.
Richards received a round of applause after his win, and then used a translator to thank the audience. He is slated to participate in another Scrabble competition in Belgium this week, wherein all players begin with the same letters.
mes/kms (AFP, dpa)