BELGIUM-SCRABBLE Non-French speaking New Zealander wins French scrabble title

Record ID: 146325

  • Title: BELGIUM-SCRABBLE Non-French speaking New Zealander wins French scrabble title
  • Date: 24th July 2015
  • Summary: LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, BELGIUM (JULY 24, 2015) (REUTERS) FRENCH-LANGUAGE DUPLICATE SCRABBLE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN PROGRESS PARTICIPANT PLACING LETTERS ON SCRABBLE BOARD FRENCH-LANGUAGE CLASSICAL SCRABBLE WORLD CHAMPION, NEW-ZEALANDER NIGEL RICHARDS TAKING PART IN COMPETITION VARIOUS OF RICHARDS PLACING LETTERS ON SCRABBLE BOARD RICHARDS SEATED AMONG OTHER CONTESTANTS CONTESTANT
  • Embargoed: 8th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8NLV13HGTGA8U2DULUNY6074Y
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A 48-year old, who won the top prize at the French Scrabble world championship in Belgium on Monday (July 20), accomplished this feat despite lacking an essential skill shared by all previous title holders: the ability to understand and speak French.
    Based in Malaysia, New Zealand-born Nigel Richards is well known in Scrabble competitive circles with three English-language World Championship and five U.S. Championship titles under his belt.
    By winning 14 games to 3 losses between Saturday and Monday, Richards took the first place in the first round of the classical - also known as non-duplicate - scrabble competition over 72 other candidates before defeating 2014 runner-up Schelick Ilagou-Rekawe in a final that lasted over three hours.
    A store keeper in Gabon's second largest city Port-Gentil, 31-year-old Ilagou-Rekawe, who's been playing Scrabble for 18 years and has been competing for four years, said it was the first time he had to face a contestant like Richards.
    "Since I started playing scrabble and participating in the French Scrabble world championship, I have never seen such character, such individual. Really, that's a first because he's a native English speaker. He doesn't speak French at all. He comes here to play French Scrabble for the first time, and that's it, he wins," Ilagou-Rekawe said.
    Richards's winning streak this week might not be over as he is also taking part on Friday (July 24) in another competition with different rules, duplicate Scrabble, a variant where contestants play alone and are given the same letters.
    Speaking on the sidelines of this other game, the championship's organizer, Yves Brenez, explained what makes Richards unique.
    "In the classical variant of the game, his playing technique is remarkable. It's linked to an exceptional memory that allowed him to learn the French dictionary by heart within nine weeks . In the classical version of the game, it's possible to challenge him on tactics and, with a bit of luck, with letters. In the duplicate version of the game, he demonstrated an extreme strength with solutions appearing to him at great speed. That does not happen to everybody. At the moment, he only lost points because of small technical mistakes. He had the right word but he put it at a less rewarding location. From this regard, he surprises us more and more every day. This is extraordinary," said Brenez, who's also the vice-president of the Belgian scrabble federation.
    Elusive Richards declined all interview requests during the competition but other contestants said he was 'very friendly'.
    The International Federation of Francophone Scrabble is comprised of 27 affiliate federations around the world and over 25,000 members.
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