Nigel Richards (Scrabble player) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nigel Richards
Richards in 2018
Born	1967 (age 57–58) Christchurch, New Zealand
Occupation	Scrabble player

Nigel Richards (born in 1967) is an amazing Scrabble player from New Zealand. Many people think he is the best tournament Scrabble player ever! He has won the World Scrabble Championship five times: in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2019. He also won the World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association Championship (WESPAC) in 2019.

Nigel Richards has won many other big Scrabble tournaments too. He's been the U.S. national champion five times, including four years in a row from 2010 to 2013. He's also won the UK Open ten times, the Singapore Open Scrabble Championship 12 times, and the King's Cup in Bangkok (the world's biggest Scrabble event) an incredible 15 times!

One of his most surprising wins was in 2015 when he won the French World Scrabble Championships. What makes this so special is that he doesn't even speak French! He reportedly spent just nine weeks studying the French dictionary to learn all the words. He won the French championship again in 2018 and has won many French duplicate titles. In 2025, he won more French titles, including the blitz, paire, and duplicate championships.

In 2024, Nigel did something similar by winning the Spanish-language World Championships, even though he doesn't speak Spanish either!

People say Nigel Richards has an amazing memory for words and numbers. He's also known for being a bit shy and doesn't often give interviews.

Early Life

Nigel Richards was born in 1967 in Christchurch, New Zealand. He went to Aranui High School. Even though he got a scholarship for university, he decided not to go. In 2000, he moved from Christchurch and started living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Scrabble Journey

Nigel started playing competitive Scrabble at the Christchurch Scrabble Club in New Zealand. Since he began playing in tournaments in 1996, he has won about 75% of his games! He has also won a lot of prize money, estimated to be around US$200,000.

Becoming a World Champion

• 2007: Nigel won his first World Scrabble Championship in Mumbai, India. He beat Ganesh Asirvatham from Malaysia 3-0 in the final and won US$15,000.
• 2011: He won the World Scrabble Championship again in Warsaw, Poland. This time, he had a very close final game against Andrew Fisher from Australia.
• 2013: Nigel became World Champion for a third time, beating Komol Panyasophonlert in the final. From this year, the World Championship was renamed the Scrabble Champions Tournament and started happening every year.
• 2018: He won his fourth World Championship title.
• 2019: Nigel won his fifth World Championship. He also won the WESPA championship, which many people consider his sixth unofficial World Championship.

Winning in the USA

Nigel Richards has won the USA National Scrabble Championship five times:

• 2008: He won his first U.S. national title, beating Brian Cappelletto. He won 22 games and only lost 6!
• 2010: He won the U.S. championship again. He was so good that year that he secured the title before the last day of the competition.
• 2011: He won the U.S. championship for the third time in a row.
• 2012: Nigel won the U.S. championship for a record fourth time in a row. He had to win his final game by a lot of points, and he did!
• 2013: He won the U.S. championship for a record fifth time overall and his fourth time in a row.

French and Spanish Scrabble Success

• 2015: Nigel surprised everyone by winning the main part of the French World Scrabble Championships in Belgium. He had only studied the French dictionary for two months and doesn't speak French! He won 14 of his 17 games before beating the 2014 runner-up, Schélick Ilagou Rekawe, in the final.
• 2018: He won his second French Classique Championship. He also won several French duplicate titles without losing a single point!
• 2024: Nigel started studying the Spanish Scrabble word list around 2023. In 2024, he competed in the Spanish World Scrabble Championship for the first time. Even though he doesn't speak Spanish, he came in second in the Duplicate format and won the Classic format championship by winning 23 out of 24 games! He even got the first two perfect scores ever recorded at that championship.

Major Achievements

Here are some of Nigel Richards' biggest wins:

World Championship Results

No.	Year	Stage	Opponent	Result
1	1999	Preliminaries	–	–
2	2005	Preliminaries
3	2007	Finals	Ganesh Asirvatham	3–0 (1)
4	2009	Finals	Pakorn Nemitrmansuk	1–3
5	2011	Finals	Andrew Fisher	3–2 (2)
6	2013	Finals	Komol Panyasophonlert	3–2 (3)
7	2014	Preliminaries	–	–
8	2015	Preliminaries
9	2016	Preliminaries
10	2017	Quarter-finals	David Eldar	0–2
11	2018	Finals	Jesse Day	3–1 (4)
12	2019	Finals	David Eldar	3–1 (5)

U.S. National Scrabble Championship Results

No.	Year	Result	Runner-up
1	2002	2nd (1)	–
2	2004	3rd (1)
3	2005	7th
4	2008	Won (1)	Brian Cappelletto
5	2009	2nd (2)	–
6	2010	Won (2)	Brian Cappelletto
7	2011	Won (3)	Kenji Matsumoto
8	2012	Won (4)	David Gibson
7	2013	Won (5)	Komol Panyasophonlert
8	2014	16th	–
9	2017	3rd (2)
10	2018	2nd (3)

French Scrabble Achievements

No.	Year	Format	Opponent	Result
1	2015	Classique	Schelick Ilagou Rekawe	2–1 (1)
2	2017	Blitz Duplicate	–	Won (1)
3	2017	Elite Duplicate		Won (1)
4	2017	Paires		Won with Hervé Bohbot (1)
5	2018	Classique	Gueu Mathieu Zingbe	2–1 (2)
6	2018	Blitz Duplicate	–	Won (2)
7	2018	Elite Duplicate		Won (2)
8	2018	Paires		Won with Hervé Bohbot (2)
9	2019	Blitz Duplicate		Won (3)
10	2019	Elite Duplicate		Won (3)
11	2019	Paires		Won with Hervé Bohbot (3)
12	2025	Blitz Duplicate	-	Won (4)
13	2025	Paires	-	Won with Hervé Bohbot (4)
14	2025	Elite Duplicate	-	Won (4)

Spanish Scrabble Achievements

Other Big Wins

• He has won the Thailand International (King's Cup) 15 times!
• He has won the Singapore Open Scrabble Championship 12 times.
• He has won the UK Open 10 times.