Congratulations to Nigel Richards. The Scrabble champion won the board game’s Spanish-language world title. And he doesn’t even speak Spanish! 

Mr. Richards is a professional Scrabble player. He holds five English-language world titles. 

He competed in Granada, Spain, in November. It was his first Spanish competition. He lost only one game out of 24. He started memorizing the language’s Scrabble word list a year ago.

Liz Fagerlund is a New Zealand Scrabble official. “He can’t understand why other people can’t just do the same thing,” she says. “He can look at a block of words together and once they go into his brain as a picture, he can just recall that very easily.”

Benjamín Olaizola of Argentina got second place. He won 18 of his games. He does speak Spanish.

Mr. Richards had accomplished a similar feat before. In 2015, he became the French language Scrabble world champion. Guess whether he speaks French. 

Nope!

He took the French title again in 2018.

People say Mr. Richards is the greatest Scrabble player of all time. In 2008, he became the first player ever to hold the world, U.S., and British titles at once.

His victories are legendary. Tens of thousands of people watch and study his games on YouTube. 

Mr. Richards’ mom says he never went to college. He wasn’t even especially good at English in school. She says he thinks about Scrabble in a mathematical way. 

“I don’t think he’s ever read a book,” she says, “apart from the dictionary.”

What will you do with your memory power? Read the verse below for a suggestion. 

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. — Psalm 119:11