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He barely has enough French to order a baguette, but this has not stopped one New Zealander from becoming the Scrabble champion of the French-speaking world.

Known as the "Tiger Woods of Scrabble", Nigel Richards, 48, memorised the entire French scrabble dictionary in just nine weeks to claim the prize.

“He doesn’t speak French at all – he just learned the words,” his close friend Liz Fagerlund told the New Zealand Herald .

“He won’t know what they mean, wouldn’t be able to carry out a conversation in French, I wouldn’t think.”

Yves Brenez, the vice president of the Belgian Scrabble federation and organiser of the Francophone championships, told FranceTV: “He’s not a francophone, I can confirm that.

“Nigel will say ‘bonjour’ with an accent and he can also give the score in French, which is obligatory, but that’s all.

(Image: JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty)

Mr Richards beat Schélick Ilagou Rékawé, a French-speaking man from Gabon in west Africa, two games to nil at the final held at Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium on Monday.

His extraordinary success, aided by a photographic memory, has led him to be branded 'extra-terrestrial'.

The Kiwi, who has won the English world Scrabble championships three times, the US national championships five times and the UK Open six times, started playing Scrabble aged 28.

He has a mathematical brain and did badly at English at school, leading his mother to introduce him to the game because she was sick of him always beating her at cards.

But he immediately developed a flair, quickly winning the New Zealand championship.

In 2000 he moved to Malaysia, and now represents the country in international competition.

“Without a doubt he’s the greatest player in our sport, ever,” said New Zealand’s national Scrabble representative Howard Warner.

(Image: JOHN THYS/AFP/Getty)

Mr Warner believes Richards’s exceptional abilities stem from a photographic memory and rare mathematical skill.

Little is known about the reclusive player, with his long beard, spectacles and intense gaze.

John Baird, who is secretary of the Christchurch Scrabble club said: "He's a very elusive character.

"I think the American Press get frustrated when he wins over there because he's a man of few words. He only comes out with one or two word answers, which is completely ironic."

Shirley Hol, president of the Christchurch Scrabble club where Richards first played the game, told the New Zealand Herald the other players had been “gobsmacked” at his victory.

She said: “I think one of the comments was ‘Are you extraterrestrial or something?’ Because it was so amazing.”