The human mind has always been a mystery which never ceases to amaze. Each time mankind thinks that they have measured the complete potential of the mind, new capabilities are revealed. Now, the current development might not be a state of the art invention but it is nothing short of a formidable accomplishment.
Nigel Richards, a scrabble mastermind from New Zealand, has just surprised the world by winning the French-language world championship of scrabble. The 48-year-old word game genius defeated a French speaking Gabonese man despite his knowledge of the French language being limited to “bonjour”.
The secret to the word wizard’s achievement is nothing more than a French language scrabble dictionary and sheer will power. He memorised the entire dictionary in just nine weeks. This scrabble maestro also has five US national scrabble titles to his name and while most might think he has been practicing all his life, Richards only took up scrabble at the age of 28 when his mother introduced him to it.
The organizer, Yves Brenez said, “I’m perhaps exaggerating a bit, but he comes up with scrabbled (words of seven or more letters) that others take 10 years to know.”
After years of dedication and practise, his mind has been conditioned in such a manner that words are nothing but alphabetical combinations to him. Richards’ feat has been hailed by the French scrabble association as being unparalleled.
Though simply memorising something, even without knowing what it means, is not advisable for going ahead with academics, the same seems to be proving instrumental, at least, in excelling in scrabble on a competitive level.