Nigel Richards of Christchurch, New Zealand won the French-language Scrabble world championship yet he doesn’t actually speak the language. Richards, a former US and World Scrabble Champ simply studied the dictionary for a couple months.
“He doesn’t speak French at all, he just learnt the words. He won’t know what they mean, wouldn’t be able to carry out a conversation in French I wouldn’t think,” said Richards’ friend Liz Fagerlund, former president of the New Zealand Scrabble Association. “He does have a reputation for being the best Scrabble player ever and they know about him already, but they probably didn’t necessarily expect him to go in for the first time and beat them at their own game.”