#NigelRichards, Néozélandais ne parlant pas français, est champion du monde de Scrabble francophone. At the very elite level, Scrabble skills rely more on an ability to calculate mathematical probabilities than on linguistic facility. Warner believes Richards’s exceptional abilities stem from a photographic memory and rare mathematical skill. “Without a doubt he’s the greatest player in our sport, ever,” said New Zealand’s national Scrabble representative Howard Warner. With his long beard, spectacles and intense gaze, the reclusive competitor cuts an enigmatic figure hunched over his letter tiles. In 2000 he moved to Malaysia, and now represents the country in international competition. He showed an immediate talent, however, winning the New Zealand national championships. “I said, ‘I know a game you’re not going to be very good at, because you can’t spell very well and you weren’t very good at English at school’,” she said. Richards, whose other great passion is cycling, wasn’t introduced to the game until he was 28, persuaded by his mother. We’ve always just treated Nigel as Nigel.” “When he was learning to talk, he was not interested in words, just numbers,” his mother, Adrienne Fischer, said. But it was not immediately obvious that the Christchurch-born Richards would excel at word-based games. His name may be unfamiliar to many, but to Scrabble aficionados, he is the greatest ever player of the board game, with archives of his previous games available to search online. He was given a standing ovation by the mainly French-speaking crowd. During the match, which he won by two games to nil, he even successfully challenged his rival Schélick Ilagou Rékawé’s use of a form of the verb “fureter” (to snoop). Richards, 48, who has won the English world Scrabble championships three times, the US national championships five times and the UK Open six times, beat a rival from French-speaking Gabon in the final held at Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium on Monday.
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