WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand man taking part in his first-ever aggressive Scrabble recreation in Spanish, a language he doesn’t converse, has received the board recreation’s Spanish-language world title.
Nigel Richards, knowledgeable participant who holds 5 English-language world titles, received the Spanish world Scrabble championships in Granada, Spain, in November, dropping one recreation out of 24.
Richards began memorizing the language’s Scrabble glossary a yr in the past, his buddy Liz Fagerlund -– a New Zealand Scrabble official -– instructed The Related Press.
“He can’t understand why other people can’t just do the same thing,” she stated. “He can look at a block of words together, and once they go into his brain as a picture he can just recall that very easily.”
In second place was defending champion Benjamín Olaizola of Argentina, who received 18 of his video games.
Nothing just like the New Zealander’s feat had ever occurred in Spanish Scrabble, stated Alejandro Terenzani, a contest organizer.
“It was impossible to react negatively, you can only be amazed,” Terenzani stated. “We certainly expected that he would perform well, but it is perhaps true that he surpassed our expectations.”
Richards has performed this earlier than. In 2015, he turned the French language Scrabble world champion, regardless of not talking French, after finding out the glossary for 9 weeks. He took the French title once more in 2018.
Acknowledged in worldwide Scrabble over his three-decade profession as the best participant of all time, Richards’ Spanish language victory was notable even by his requirements, different gamers stated.
Whereas compensating for various tile values in English and Spanish Scrabble, Richards additionally needed to take care of 1000’s of extra seven, eight and 9 letter phrases within the Spanish language -– which demand a special technique.
Richards in 2008 was the primary participant ever to carry the world, U.S. and British titles concurrently, regardless of having to “forget” 40,000 English phrases that don’t seem within the American Scrabble glossary to triumph within the U.S.
His victories are legendary within the Scrabble neighborhood, and video games analyzed in YouTube movies watched by tens of 1000’s.
Scrabble doesn’t require gamers to know the definitions of phrases, solely what mixtures of letters are allowed in a rustic’s model of the sport, however native audio system have “a huge leg up,” American Scrabble participant Will Anderson stated in a video summarizing Richards’ Spanish win.
Richards’ mom, Adrienne Fischer, instructed a New Zealand newspaper in 2010 that he didn’t excel at English at school, by no means attended college and took a mathematical strategy to the sport moderately than a linguistic one.
“I don’t think he’s ever read a book, apart from the dictionary,” she stated.
Fagerlund stated Richards impressed her when he arrived at his first Scrabble membership assembly at age 28. Two years later, in 1997, he cycled 220 miles (350 kilometers) from Christchurch to town of Dunedin, received the New Zealand title on his first try and cycled house once more.
On the Spanish occasion he was shy and modest, organizer Terenzani stated, however fortunately posed for images and spoke with followers who approached him.
“Although he did so in English, of course,” Terenzani added.
What motivates Richards, who now lives in Malaysia, is a thriller. He by no means speaks to reporters.
“I get lots of requests from journalists wanting to interview him and he’s not interested,” Fagerlund stated. “He doesn’t understand what all the hoo-ha is about.”
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Related Press author Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed.
