New Zealander Nigel Richards Wins World Championship In French Scrabble Without Understanding A Word Of French Monday July 20,2015

 

New Zealander Nigel Richards can't speak much French beyond "bonjour," but that didn't stop the Scrabble mastermind from winning the word game's French-language world championship on Monday July 20,2015

Nigel Richards(48)defeated a French-speaking competitor from Gabon during the final round of the tournament in Louvain, Belgium

Nigel Richards reportedly memorized the entire French-language scrabble dictionary in just nine weeks before the start of the tournament.

Nigel Richards's  success is owed to his highly mathematical brain, experts in the game have said. He never showed much interest in language growing up and only picked up the game at 28 when his mother, Adrienne Fischer, introduced him to it.



Note
Nigel Richards has dominated the game in his native tongue too, winning world titles for English Scrabble in 2007 and 2011. He's also captured five U.S. national titles.