Nigel Richards (Scrabble player)

For other uses, see Nigel Richards (disambiguation).

Nigel Richards
Richards in 2018
Born1967 (age 56–57)
Christchurch, New Zealand[1]
OccupationScrabble player

Nigel Richards (born 1967)[2] is a New Zealand-Malaysian Scrabble player who is widely regarded as the greatest tournament-Scrabble player of all time. Born and raised in New Zealand, Richards became World Champion in 2007, and repeated the feat in 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2019. He also won the third World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association Championship (WESPAC) in 2019.[3]

Richards is also a five-time U.S. national champion (four times consecutively from 2010 to 2013), an eight-time UK Open champion, an 11-time champion of the Singapore Open Scrabble Championship and a 15-time winner of the King's Cup in Bangkok, the world's biggest Scrabble competition.

In 2015, despite not speaking French,[4] Richards won the French World Scrabble Championships, after reportedly spending nine weeks studying the French dictionary.[5] He won it again in 2018, and multiple duplicate titles from 2016.[6]

Renowned for his eidetic and mathematical abilities, Richards has been described as a reclusive personality and has rarely been interviewed.[4]

  1. ^ Willsher, Kim (21 July 2015). "The French Scrabble champion who doesn't speak French". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 July 2015.
  2. ^ Gendron, Guillaume (27 July 2015). "Nigel Richards, déchiffrer des lettres". Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 15 May 2023.
  3. ^ Nigel’s WESPAC title
  4. ^ a b Pascaud, May (21 July 2015). "The new French-language Scrabble champion doesn't speak French". The World. PRX. Retrieved 9 March 2023.
  5. ^ "The French-language Scrabble champion doesn't speak French". Deutsche Welle. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2023.
  6. ^ "The scrabble legend with few words to say, but plenty to play". ESPN. 16 January 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2023.