How Kiwi Nigel Richards won French Scrabble championship

Nigel Richards doesn't speak French so his victory at the Francophone Scrabble World Championships is all the more amazing. Photo / Getty Images

The Kiwi man who has topped the French Scrabble world at a recent competition, without actually being able to speak the language, has floored many of the board game's French fans.

Nigel Richards, originally from Christchurch, defeated a rival from French-speaking Gabon in the final in Louvain, Belgium, on Monday.

He took out his competition, at the Elite Classic, Schelick Ilagou Rekawe, winning two of three matches: 370 -427, 484-376, 565-434.

Scrabble blogger Dzibz said on an online post, Mr Richards may have even won his first game, if only time hadn't gone against him and run out.

The blogger outlined what he saw as the New Zealander's ten most remarkable plays.

He said Mr Richards, who lives in Malaysia, had quite an unfortunate collection of letters on his first go.

"Most common mortals would have been happy to play the word CHOQUE [shock], somewhere, to get rid of the Q even if it opened up the grid."

But he said the scrabble player refused to take the easy route, instead making a play that closed off the grid to his competitor.

Dzibz said it was likely that the Mr Richards would have won the first round thanks to his "stroke of genius" if the timer had not prevented him from doing so.

Richards received a standing ovation after his win - but needed a translator to thank his audience. Photo / Getty Images

In the second round, Mr Richards, who memorised a French dictionary within a mere nine weeks, even successfully refuted the use of the word Furetees [snooped], which was deemed invalid for linguistic reasons.

To round off the final match and take the win, the New Zealand scrabble player ended off his round with a move that was typical of more seasoned French players, placing the word, ENOUAT [unknot] under REGNANTS [reigning], to form three two-letter words.

"The blow is not unbelievably difficult, but it is the result of a good instinctive scrabble play, formed small two-letter words, that come only when we are used to playing the game. Nigel has developed this instinct in nine weeks," says Dzibz

Mr Richards received a standing ovation after his win - but needed a translator to thank his audience.

He is said to be participating in more Scrabble competitions this week.

On Wednesday he's going to play a version of the game called Duplicate, where all players start with the same letters and play against a computer - eliminating any chance of luck.

His newly-acquired French fans will be watching to see just how he can surprise them next.

Dzibz says while Mr Richards was an outsider to the French scrabble world he didn't believe the Kiwi was done.

"This will be one of his first times playing, but something tells us that this man is not finished surprising us."