WASHINGTON — It’s hard to say whether this is scandalous, impressive or both: A New Zealand native won the French-language world Scrabble championship despite what most would consider a handicap — he doesn’t speak French.
Nigel Richards, who lives in Malaysia but is originally from Christchurch, won the Francophone championship final on Monday in Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, defeating an opponent from Gabon, a French-speaking country in Africa.
Liz Faegerlund, a friend of Richards’, told the New Zealand Herald, “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.”
She says that Richards simply started studying the French dictionary about nine weeks ago.
Richards may well be the best Scrabble player in the world — he’s won the world championship three times and the US championship five, and Faegerlund says of the French-speaking players, “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.”
#NigelRichards est champion du monde de #Scrabble francophone. Mais il ne parle pas français ! http://t.co/hoTIUZujSb pic.twitter.com/2HfCJSVKvt
— TV5MONDE.COM INFO (@TV5MONDEINFO) July 22, 2015
