OUVAIN: Nigel Richards, indisputably the best scrabble player in the world in the English language, has won the world title in French language by winning the Francophone Classique World Championship after 17 qualifying rounds and a best-of-three finals in Louvain, Belgium, on Monday.

Richards does not speak any French and had memorised an entire French Scrabble dictionary in nine weeks earlier this year.

Richards beat Gabon’s Schelick Ilagou Rekawe two games to nil in the final.

This is the first instance in history for a person to win a scrabble world title in two different languages.

Published in Dawn, July 22th, 2015

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