Nigel Richards, a Scrabble prodigy from New Zealand, has once again proven his uncanny ability to master the game in a foreign language. Despite not speaking Spanish, Richards won the Spanish World Scrabble Championships in Granada, Spain, last month.
Richards, who is in his 50s, beat 145 opponents from around the world, including native speakers, winning 22 consecutive matches. The runner-up, Benjamín Olaizola, described Richards as a “gifted man” with “very specific capabilities,” calling his own defeat an “incredible humiliation.”
This isn’t the first time Richards has accomplished this feat. In 2015, he won the French-language Scrabble title after reportedly spending just nine weeks memorizing the French dictionary—a book containing nearly 400,000 words. His friend Liz Fagerlund believes Richards is “wired differently,” saying he can absorb a page full of words just by looking at it.
Known as the “Tiger Woods of Scrabble,” Richards has won close to 200 tournaments and is currently ranked No. 1 by the World English-language Scrabble Player’s Association (WESPA). He started playing Scrabble with his mother, who was tired of him beating her at cards. He quickly went from an average English student to a top-tier Scrabble player, and eventually to a world champion.
Richards is known for his reclusive nature and rarely gives interviews. He prefers cycling over watching TV or listening to the radio. According to Olaizola, Richards’ winning strategy involves using complex words and making unexpected moves, catching even the most prepared competitors off guard.
Nigel Richards: The Scrabble G.O.A.T. and His Unorthodox Path to Victory
Nigel Richards is not just a Scrabble player; he is a force of nature who has redefined what it means to be a champion of the game. Known as the “Tiger Woods of Scrabble,” his list of accomplishments is nothing short of staggering, and his recent Spanish World Scrabble Championship win without speaking the language is just the latest in a long line of jaw-dropping feats.
Richards’ dominance extends far beyond a single tournament. He has won the World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association Championship (WESPAC) multiple times, including in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2019. His trophy case is also packed with titles from other prestigious tournaments, such as the U.S. national championship, the UK Open, the Singapore Open, and the King’s Cup in Bangkok, which is considered the world’s largest Scrabble competition.
But what makes Richards truly unique is his “mind over matter” approach to the game. His victories in foreign-language tournaments, first in French in 2015 and now in Spanish, have made him a legend. Instead of learning the language, he reportedly memorizes the entire dictionary. For the French championship, he spent nine weeks committing the nearly 400,000 words to memory. His friend Liz Fagerlund describes his brain as “wired differently,” explaining that he can absorb an entire page of words as a single image and recall them at will.
This incredible memory is just one part of his winning strategy. Richards’ gameplay is often described as “alien” or bot-like, as he consistently finds the optimal move with incredible speed. Opponents have noted his uncanny ability to make complex plays that no one else sees, often using long, obscure words to maximize points. He is a master of tile management, planning several moves ahead to set up high-scoring “bingos” (plays using all seven tiles). One opponent recounted how Richards played a low-scoring word to set up a massive “triple-triple” (a play hitting two triple-word score squares at once), a move that scored an astonishing 221 points and effectively ended the game.
Richards, who is known for his quiet and reclusive nature, rarely gives interviews. He is a dedicated cyclist, a habit that helps keep him mentally sharp. His success, he once said, is simply a matter of “learning the words.” While this may sound deceptively simple, no one else has been able to replicate his photographic memory and strategic prowess on such a grand scale. Nigel Richards is a testament to the power of a highly focused mind and a reminder that true genius can take many forms, even in a game as seemingly simple as Scrabble.
