Unprecedented Victory
Nigel Richards, a New Zealand Scrabble champion, won the Spanish-language Scrabble world title in , despite not speaking Spanish, marking his first competitive game in the language.
Richards memorized the Spanish Scrabble word list over a year, achieving a remarkable victory by losing only one out of 24 games, and defeating the defending champion, Benjamín Olaizola of .
A Unique Approach and Global Recognition
Renowned as one of the greatest Scrabble players of all time, Richards has previously won the French language Scrabble world championship without speaking French, by memorizing the French Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks.
Richards' unconventional method of memorizing word lists as visual patterns, combined with his strategic adjustments for different tile values and vocabulary sizes, has garnered him legendary status in the Scrabble community.