Man wins French Scrabble championship without speaking a word of French

The newly crowned champion of French-language Scrabble, faced a unique challengegoing into Monday's final in Louvain, Belgium. After all, he doesn't speak French. At all.

NigelRichards, ofChristchurch, New Zealand, defeated a competitor from the French-speaking African nation of Gabontwo games to none.

Richards, who works as an engineerin Malaysia, is no stranger to the crossword board game. Hewas the world champion of English Scrabble in 2007 and 2011, won five U.S.national titles, and is considered one of the world's top players.

The French Scrabble Federation said that Richards took up the challenge of winning the world championship of French Scrabble in May.

His training involved memorizing the French Scrabble dictionary in about nine weeks.

Antoine Rousseau, the spokesperson for the federation, told AgenceFrance Presse thatRichardsnow knows all French words that have two to 10 letters, even if he has no idea what they mean.

For his accomplishment, Richardsreceived a standing ovation from the audience in Louvain on Monday.

Richardsneeded a translator to express his thanks.

Liz Fagerlund,former president of the New Zealand Scrabble Association and a friend of Richards, told the New Zealand Herald that the French Scrabble playerswould have known about Richards'record in the English Scrabble world going into the competition.

"He does have a reputation for being the best Scrabble player ever and they know about him already, but they probably didn't necessarily expect him to go in for the first time and beat them at their own game," Fagerlund said.