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Noel's Tips
Rack Management
Learning Words
Tile Turnover
Changing Tiles

Possessing the Initiative
Triple-Word Squares
Tile-Tracking
Defensive Play
The Endgame

You play STRUNG/PAS for 19 points, putting you 72 ahead. He replies with OU/NO/GU for 11 points, bringing the margin back down to 61 points.

Board 5.

Your Rack: ADEEEST

Again, you have no bonus of your own. Your tile-tracking now looks like:

There is still an ominous look about these tiles, and remember, now, since there is only 1 tile left in the bag, which you are sure to remove, you have come to the point where, if your opponent uses his tiles up first, the total of the tiles on your rack must be subtracted from your score, and added to his. Indeed your opponent has followed the sound policy of making sure that he left you one tile in the bag. It means he is sure to get one more turn, and that you will have just that one element of uncertainty about what his rack actually is.

You are almost there, but not quite. You have made a brave decision, and it has almost been pressed home. But so many games are won and lost on the last move. If he has had any difficulty getting to the rack that you always believed him to have, already, then he almost certainly has it now. How can you be most sure of still being in front after the final reckoning?

The board is still littered with traps. What is your first instinct? To take off the Triple-Word-Score with OUT/TED or OUT/TEE? Surely not. He cannot catch you with a mere Triple-Word-Score, even if he has got a V, and still manages to go out before you, thus gaining one extra move. He can still only catch you with a bonus-word, and you will just be giving him an extra option about where to put it. If you don’t help him, then where else will he put it? Under the NO or both the NO and the GU, almost certainly. How do you stop it? By following the same strategy that you have followed so far? By playing as long a word as possible, to the left, this time, from M14 or N14? Possibly. Let us look at the highest-scoring play, SEATED, from J14. This move scores 29 points, and leaves the E on the rack. This gives you a lead of 90 points, and leaves you feeling quite smug.

Board 6.

Unfortunately, when you discover that it was the V that was left in the bag, and your opponent plays REStATE from G15, scoring 81, subtracting 5 from your score, and adding 5 to his, the smile will be wiped from your face as you realise that you have lost by 1.

Still, this is the worst-case scenario. There is only a 1 in 8 chance that the V will be in the bag. But remember, if it is not, then he will be able to get some credit for playing it, so that, if he can still find a bonus, with the slightly more difficult rack that he would then have, he might still pip you.

Board 7.

Continuing with the worst-case scenario, what else can you do? How about SEDATE, from I14? This also scores 29 points, giving you a 90-point lead. Unfortunately, this move really gets hammered by the more obscure sTEARES from H15, a score of 90 points; your opponent wins by 10, always assuming he knows the word, of course.