Ben Nuckols.

There are times when the Scripps National Spelling Bee transforms into a geography bee. Scripps has begun relying on obscure geographical terms to winnow down the field of spellers in the later rounds. While the words are included in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary, they often don’t follow familiar roots or language patterns. That denies accomplished spellers of the tools they use to figure out how to spell words they’ve never seen before. Some spellers say the best way to deal with geographical names is just to memorize them. The National Spelling Bee began Tuesday and concludes Thursday at a convention center outside Washington.