New Zealand's Nigel Richards wins Spanish World Scrabble title without knowing the language

Dubai: Nigel Richards, a professional scrabble player from New Zealand, has added another astonishing achievement to his name by winning the Spanish World Scrabble Championship in Granada, Spain. Known for his dominance in the English-language game, where he has claimed five world titles, Richards lost just one of his 24 games en route to victory.

Richards prepared for the tournament by memorising the Spanish Scrabble word list, a process he began only a year ago. “He can’t understand why other people can’t just do the same thing,” said Liz Fagerlund, a New Zealand Scrabble official and friend, in an interview with the Associated Press. “He can look at a block of words together, and once they go into his brain as a picture, he can recall them effortlessly.”

The defending champion, Benjamln Olaizola of Argentina, finished second. Contest organiser Alejandro Terenzani described Richards’ victory as unprecedented. “It was impossible to react negatively; you can only be amazed,” he said.

This is not Richards’ first language-defying triumph. He won the French Scrabble World Championship in 2015 and 2018 without speaking French and once held the world, US, and British titles simultaneously. Spanish Scrabble posed unique challenges, including different tile values and thousands of additional long words, yet Richards adapted seamlessly.

Richards’ mathematical approach to scrabble gives him an edge. Though he never excelled in English at school or attended university, he relies on patterns and strategy rather than linguistic knowledge.

Despite his legendary status in the scrabble community, where his games are studied in popular videos, Richards remains shy and avoids media attention. At the Spanish event, he posed for photos and chatted with fans in English but declined interviews. “He doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about,” Fagerlund said.

Now living in Malaysia, Richards continues to mystify and inspire, with his unmatched achievements solidifying his place as one of the greatest scrabble players of all time.