SIEGEL: (Laughter) So did he do this? How did he win the French language Scrabble championship in Belgium yesterday?įATSIS: He memorized enough words in French to score the most points possible. I think he could count to 10 and say bonjour, but that was about it. Nigel was starting at pretty much scratch. They can ask where the bathroom is, but they can't do much more than that. We've actually had two Thai world champions, and they speak passably. In Thailand, Scrabble has been popular for many, many years. And that can be English, too.įATSIS: Absolutely. SIEGEL: (Laughter) You've written about this in the past -the idea that there are great competitive Scrabble players who do not know the language they're competing in. And to then decide to learn the French words and go win the world championship on his first try is not only audacious it is remarkable. He's won three world Scrabble championships. He has won five North American Scrabble championships. Nigel Richards is the best Scrabble player of all time. SIEGEL: OK, Nigel Richards, Serena Williams, Jordan Spieth - same idea here?įATSIS: Tiger Woods at his peak, and then Tiger saying, all right, I think I'll also take up tennis and then win Wimbledon the next year.

And he's been following the career of Nigel Richards and joins us now. Stefan Fatsis wrote a book on the world of competitive Scrabble. The story goes that Nigel Richards, who's from New Zealand, pulled this off by taking eight or nine weeks to memorize the French dictionary.

The new world champion of French language Scrabble ne parle pas francais.

Word freak by stefan fatsis