The French-language Scrabble world championship just went to a New Zealander — who doesn’t speak French:
The BBC reported that Nigel Richards, originally from Christchurch, defeated a rival from French-speaking Gabon in the final in Louvain, Belgium, on Monday.
He had only started studying the French dictionary about eight weeks ago, said a close friend of Mr Richards, Liz Fagerlund.
“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.”
Mr Richards, now in his late forties, is a previous English Scrabble champion. He is based in Malaysia.
He has won five US National titles and the World Scrabble Championship three times.
In scrabble-type games, having in your memory associations between words based on their meanings rather than their spellings is a major handicap. Not knowing the language would be quite an advantage.