If you can fit two or more anagrams on the board, then you can look at other factors to decide which to play.
Score: Does one hit a double- or triple-word square, or get a higher-scoring tile on a double- or triple-letter square?
Vowel position: Does one put a vowel next to a premium square, especially a triple-letter or triple-word square, enabling your opponent to possibly get a big score with a power tile (J, Q, X or Z)?
Hooks: If your word goes across and ends in, say, the second-last column, your opponent could hit a triple-word square if they can put a letter after your word. So BEEFIER could be better than FREEBIE because you can’t put any letters after it, whereas you can put an S after FREEBIE.
By Barry Grossman
Barry is a leading UK Scrabble player and winner of several tournaments. He is the author of Scrabble for Beginners (Chambers), Need to Know Scrabble, Scrabble – Play to Win and The Little Book of Scrabble Trickster. He has also contributed to numerous other books on the subject of words and word-games, has been a series champion of Channel 4’s Countdown, and has written four comedy series for BBC Radio 4. He lives in Hertford.
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