Nigel Richards Wins Spanish Scrabble Championship Without Speaking Spanish

Nigel Richards, a 57-year-old New Zealander and renowned Scrabble player, won the Spanish World Scrabble Championship in Granada, Spain, despite not speaking Spanish. He defeated native speakers using words like "ENRUGASE" [enɾuˈɣase] ("to wrinkle up") and "SABURROSA" [sabuˈrosa] (coated residue of the tongue). Richards' knowledge of the Spanish language is limited; he can barely order food and drinks. For Richards, Scrabble is about patterns, probabilities, and memory, not communication. In 2015, he memorized the French Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks to win his first French title. Alejandro Terenzani, a contest organizer, expressed amazement at Richards' ability. Richards memorizes words as visual patterns, treating them as mathematical puzzles. Liz Fagerlund, a New Zealand Scrabble official, noted his ability to recall words easily once they are stored as a picture. He is also a five-time English-language Scrabble world champion and a two-time French-language champion. Richards' success highlights that knowing word meanings is not essential in competitive Scrabble. Instead, knowing valid letter combinations and maximizing point value are key. In Spanish Scrabble, longer words are favored. Benjamín Olaizola, the tournament's runner-up, called Richards "the best player in the history of Scrabble," noting his unorthodox tactics. In a 1998 tournament game, Richards played "chlorodyne" instead of "children," earning more points. Richards lives a reclusive life in Malaysia, avoiding media attention. He is a vegetarian who cycles and enjoys math. Fagerlund said he is not interested in fame, but loves the game. Richards joined a Scrabble club in Christchurch, New Zealand, in his late 20s. He won the New Zealand title in 1997. Eric Salvador Tchouyo, a world champion Scrabble player from Cameroon, likened playing against Richards to playing against a computer. The Scrabble world wonders what dictionary Richards will learn next.