A New Zealander studied for a year to win the Spanish world Scrabble title. He doesn’t speak Spanish

Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand man playing his first-ever competitive Scrabble game in Spanish, a language he doesn’t speak, has won the board game’s Spanish-language world title. Nigel Richards, a professional player who now lives in Malaysia, won the Spanish world Scrabble championships in Granada, Spain, in November, losing only one game out of 24. The New Zealander speaks no Spanish and started memorizing the language’s Scrabble word list a year ago. In second place was defending champion Benjamín Olaizola of Argentina. In 2015, Richards won the world French-language Scrabble title despite not speaking French. He has been the English-language world champion five times.