While most of Scrabble players studied the 7-8 letter words as a bread and butter to their arsenals, Nigel Richards believed to have more word knowledge than anybody else when it comes to recalling longer words of 9-letter-words and above. Below are some examples of his brilliant plays in actual tournaments, and I compiled it as a puzzle:
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: John Luebkemann
Event: Scrabble Champions Tournament (SCT) 2013
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: Simon Gillam
Event: iGate 2009
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: Shaila Amalean
Event: World Scrabble Championship (WSC) 1999
Lexicon: SOWPODS
Opponent: Mark Nyman
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: Akkarapol
Event: King's Cup 2014
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: Komol P.
Event: ???
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: Toh Weibin
Event: Tournament of Champions 2010
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: David Boys
Event: Causeway Scrabble Challenge 2010
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: Helen Gipson
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: Hubert Wee
Lexicon: CSW15
Opponent: Piotr Andronowski
Lexicon: CSW15
Opponent: Piotr Andronowski
Event: 8th Godswill Akpabio International Classics 2014
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: Wellington Jighere
Event: Causeway Scrabble Challenge 2009
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: Pakorn Nemitrmansuk
Event: Causeway Scrabble Challenge 2008
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: Thacha Koowirat
Event: Causeway Scrabble Challenge 2008
Lexicon: CSW07
Opponent: Lim Li Wei
Event: 8th Godswill Akpabio International Classics 2014
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: ???
(Note: This was also posted in Reddit mentioning that the actual board position might have been somewhat different because there are no detailed records of the game... so it's not clear which of the words were already on the board when this word was played. But the puzzle basically remains the same.)
Curious about this? You can view the photo of Nigel with the board here.
Event: iGate 2015
Lexicon: CSW12
Opponent: Goutham Jayaraman
Event: Tournament at Christchurch, New Zealand in 1998
Lexicon: SOWPODS
Opponent: Joyce Rathgen
Event: KSSA 2024
Lexicon: CSW21
Opponent: Rajiv Antao
How well did you fare?
Do you want some more?
Alright, we have a bonus round! This time, we don't have any complete board layout. Given the rack, all you need to do is to place the tiles through the given word or letters.
For the last four puzzles, I've added tiles (which are not really included in the rack) just to complete the rack. This time, you will do some extensions as Nigel did!
I therefore conclude that the above Nigel's plays are testament to his unmatched vocabulary!
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