Nigel Richards is the reigning world champion of Scrabble in Spanish. Just don’t ask him to order a coffee in Madrid. The 57-year-old New Zealander doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish.
During the deciding match in November’s Spanish World Scrabble Championship in Granada, Spain, Richards racked up triple-word scores with ENRUGASE (“to wrinkle up”) and ENHOTOS (an archaic word for “familiarity”), before clinching victory with TRINIDAD and SABURROSA (an obscure word that describes the coated residue of the tongue).
Not that Richards knew the meaning of any of those words.
One Spanish TV broadcaster called his win the “ultimate humiliation.” The global Scrabble community wasn’t so surprised. Richards had done this before—in French.
How good is Scrabble’s GOAT? He wins in languages he can’t speak. “He memorizes words as soon as he reads them once…For him, all words are equal in his memory, and he doesn’t need to know their meaning." https://t.co/BzfRLNqVCH via @WSJ @natasha_dangoor
— Gráinne McCarthy (@grainnemcc) February 10, 2025
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