New Zealander is world champion of Francophone Scrabble

The new Francophone Scrabble world champion is a New Zealander who does not speak a word of French. In preparation for the championship in Belgium's Louvain-la-Neuve on Monday, Nigel Richards (pictured) spent nine weeks learning the French vocabulary and verb conjugations by heart. He defeated native French-speaker Schélick Ilagou Rekawe from Gabon in the final, reports the BBC.

Richards is no newbie to international prizes, winning the US Scrabble Championship five times, the Singapore Open Scrabble Championship 11 times and the King's Cup 12 times, the biggest Scrabble competition in the world.

Richards does not speak French, confirmed Yves Brenez, vice president of the Belgium Scrabble Federation, to the website FranceTV Info.

photo: Dzibz on Twitter