Occasionally there is a person so dominant in in their field that they blow away even the second-best competitor. Nigel Richards even stands out when compared to others in this rare breed. FiveThirtyEight looks at what makes him the best Scrabble player on Earth.

+ BoingBoing’s Mark Frauenfelder introduces you to his genius friend who went to high school for ten years. (He wanted to get it right.)