Michel Duguet is a French

French people

The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...

 Scrabble player

Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...

 who won the French World Scrabble Championships

French World Scrabble Championships

The French World Scrabble Championships is an annual Scrabble tournament that takes place in a different French-speaking country every year. Created in 1972 by Hippolyte Wouters, it was the first of the three World Scrabble Championships to be created, with the English version being created in...

 five times during the 1980s. His record of five world titles has never been broken, but has been equalled by Christian Pierre

Christian Pierre

Christine Pierre is a Belgian Scrabble player who has won the French World Scrabble Championships five times, equalling the record of Michel Duguet who won the competition five times in the 1980s while Pierre won all five of his titles in the 1990s...

 during the 1990s. Despite both players being five-time world champions, it was Duguet that was awarded the prize of 'player of the century' at the World Championship in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 2000.

Duguet only played ten seasons of French Scrabble, also winning the French national championship six times, the World Championship by pairs five times and the French championship by pairs twice. Away from Scrabble, he was the Des chiffres et des lettres

Des chiffres et des lettres

Des chiffres et des lettres is a French television programme. It was created by Armand Jammot and tests the numeracy skills and vocabulary of two contestants...

champion in 1984, a game show based on anagram

Anagram

An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...

s and numbers games known as Countdown

Countdown (game show)

Countdown is a British game show involving word and number puzzles. It is produced by ITV Studios and broadcast on Channel 4. It is presented by Jeff Stelling, assisted by Rachel Riley, with regular lexicographer Susie Dent. It was the first programme to be aired on Channel 4, and over sixty-five...

in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. After retiring from Scrabble in 1988, he took up bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

 and ending up representing the French national team at the European Bridge championships in 2002, as well as winning the French cup (Coupe de France) of bridge in 2004 with his wife Marlène. Duguet has occasionally come out of retirement to play Scrabble, finishing 7th at Vichy

Vichy

Vichy is a commune in the department of Allier in Auvergne in central France. It belongs to the historic province of Bourbonnais.It is known as a spa and resort town and was the de facto capital of Vichy France during the World War II Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1944.The town's inhabitants...

in 2006, a tournament which welcomes more than 1200 players each year.

Duguet is also an authors and has written six books with Michel Charlemagne, another World Scrabble Champion who turned to card games after being World Scrabble Champion.

Scrabble

• Five time World Champion: 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1988
• Five times World Champion by pairs: 1982, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1988
• Six time French national champion: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987
• Twice national champion by pairs: 1982, 1987

Bridge

• 9th place in the European Championship (with Marlène Duguet): 1998
• 2nd place in the European Championship (with Marlène Duguet): 2000
• Winner of the 'Coupe de France' (with Marlène Duguet) : 2004
• Member of the French national bridge team in 2002

Books

• 1998 : Le Scrabble en 10 leçons par Michel Charlemagne and Michel Duguet, editions Minerva (ISBN 283070455X).
• 1998 : Premiers pas au bridge by Michel Charlemagne and Michel Duguet, editions Marabout (ISBN 250103922X).
• 1998 : Jouez au Scrabble avec Michel Duguet, editions Flammarion (ISBN 2082001474).
• 1999 : Le grand livre de tous les jeux de cartes by Michel Charlemagne, Michel Duguet and Jean-Michel Maman (ISBN 2501031903).
• 2003 : Le guide Marabout du bridge by Michel Charlemagne and Michel Duguet, editions Marabout (ISBN 250103922X).
• 2005 : Le grand guide Marabout du bridge by Michel Charlemagne and Michel Duguet, editions Marabout (ISBN 2501043928).

Source