WELLINGTON, New Zealand. Nigel Richards, a New Zealand professional Scrabble player renowned for his mastery of the board game, has achieved another unprecedented milestone: winning the 2023 Spanish World Scrabble Championship, despite not speaking Spanish.
Richards claimed the title in Granada, Spain, in November, winning 23 out of 24 matches in his first competitive Spanish Scrabble tournament. The feat stunned the Scrabble community and organizers alike, as Richards spent only a year memorizing the Spanish Scrabble word list.
A Champion’s Unique Approach
Liz Fagerlund, a New Zealand Scrabble official and friend of Richards, shared that his photographic memory was key to his success.
“He can’t understand why other people can’t just do the same thing,” Fagerlund told The Associated Press. “He looks at a block of words, and once they go into his brain as a picture, he can just recall that very easily.”
Richards’ victory dethroned defending champion Benjamín Olaizola of Argentina, who finished in second place with 18 wins. Contest organizer Alejandro Terenzani described Richards’ performance as astonishing.
“It was impossible to react negatively; you can only be amazed,” Terenzani said. “We certainly expected that he would perform well, but it is perhaps true that he surpassed our expectations.”
Not His First Linguistic Feat
This is not the first time Richards has defied language barriers in Scrabble. In 2015, he became the French World Scrabble Champion after just nine weeks of studying French words, a title he reclaimed in 2018.
Recognized as the greatest Scrabble player of all time, Richards has accumulated numerous accolades over his three-decade career, including simultaneously holding the world, U.S., and British titles in 2008.
The Challenge of Spanish Scrabble
Unlike English, Spanish Scrabble involves longer words, often spanning seven, eight, or nine letters, requiring distinct strategies and adaptations. Players must also navigate differences in tile values and word frequency.
Will Anderson, an American Scrabble player, remarked on Richards’ triumph in a YouTube analysis, noting that while Scrabble doesn’t require players to know the meanings of words, native speakers generally have a significant advantage.
“Richards’ Spanish victory is remarkable even by his legendary standards,” Anderson said.
A Quiet Legend
Richards, who now resides in Malaysia, remains an enigma. He avoids interviews and media attention, leaving fans and journalists curious about his motivations.
“I get lots of requests from journalists wanting to interview him, and he’s not interested,” Fagerlund said. “He doesn’t understand what all the hoo-ha is about.”
At the tournament, Richards remained modest and reserved, according to Terenzani. However, he graciously posed for photos and interacted with fans—“in English, of course,” Terenzani quipped.
Richards’ methodical and mathematical approach to the game contrasts with traditional linguistic strategies. Even his mother, Adrienne Fischer, once remarked, “I don’t think he’s ever read a book, apart from the dictionary.”
Richards’ remarkable achievements continue to captivate the global Scrabble community, solidifying his status as a true icon in the game.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
