Welcome back to our annotated game series. It's now mid-May, but not much has changed - we're all still hunkered down in our respective homes, playing our Scrabble tournaments remotely.

Today's annotated game is from the CURE4, our most recent online event. It's a matchup between two of the world's top players - Esther Perrins, of Australia, and Austin Shin, who recently moved to the United States.

Thanks to both Esther and Austin for sharing their analysis of the game, and thanks once more to Conrad Bassett-Bouchard for the graphic design work on the boards below.

Let's get to the game.

Esther: ?EEGRTX

8F GREX +24 24

Austin: AEILLNO

G4 ALLERION +60 60

Esther: ?AAEIRT

11D cRANIATE +78 102

Esther: This was pretty much the first word that popped into my head. I would have rather played through the first L or ALLERION to try and limit the hotspot from the H column, but nothing sprung to mind. I was also very nervous playing my first online international tournament, and being paired against Austin freaked me out somewhat! So not many options came to me. I also didn't want to waste valuable time looking for another word, as I felt I might need time in the endgame.

Austin: ?EILNSY

5E SILENtLY +90 150

Esther: EEEEMMN

12I MEME +26 128

Esther: EEINOST

1H BETONIES +83 211

Austin: DILPRTV

10F POLT +29 214

Austin: There weren't many higher scoring places on the board to play off clunky consonants, except for F10; therefore, I decided to go here as it cleared three consonants, scored decently, and after her bingo, took out the possibility of a Z bomb in that spot.

Esther: BDGHNNS

exchange BDGNN +0 211

Esther: I wasn't set on exchanging, but I was reluctant to burn the S, and all the options still left me consonant-heavy. I felt a change might get me out of trouble. I kept the H back with the S as they go well together and as a bit of insurance for scoring the next time, should I pick up all one-pointers. I was very excited with the pickup after the exchange, but wasn't really expecting it, hence keeping the H for (potentially) a reasonable score.

Austin: CDFIRRV

L4 FYRD +22 236

Esther: EFHIRST

O1 SHIFTERS +104 315

Austin: CIOORVW

N6 WOO +31 267

Austin: Being 79 behind and with the board becoming relatively blocky, I felt my options were pretty limited. WOO scores well, though blocking a bingo lane, but most of the other options like COW J13 also impede row 13 and don't score as well, with the leave not being vastly superior. So I decided that I'll take the 31 points with WOO, stay within reach and wait for a better opportunity to carve the board open later on.

Austin: ACEIIRV

2D CAVIARIE +81 348

Esther: ABDOOQU

9J QUOAD +24 367

Esther: I needed to dump the Q, and apart from a couple of QUA spots which potentially gave away big scores, I thought QUOAD was okay - and kept the board reasonably tight. It was only after I played the move that I realised I'd set up a huge score for WOODY, which is exactly what he had. Very careless.

Austin: ACIUWYZ

10L WAY +44 392

Austin: With the scores and board still being relatively tight, the case Y that I held became a very useful tile with the WOODY and JACKY hooks offering such high-scoring spots. WAY put me 25 points ahead and holding a Z to score decently and a C to block anything later on, so I felt like I was in a strong position going into the pre-endgame stage. Either my tiles could become more clunky or Esther could bingo - those were really the two main ways that I could lose.

Esther: BENOTTU

6B BUNT +14 381

Esther: I realised I was now in trouble. I worked hard to find a word under MEME that scored reasonably well and used the B, U and T, but nothing sprung to mind. I thought the only way to catch up now was to bingo, so I needed to create another opening.

Austin: CINPUVZ

13E UNZIP +40 432

Austin: CDGHIOV

13L DIV +17 449

Austin: Being 38 ahead, I could afford to maximise my winning percentage and not have to worry about being outrun. I worked out that there was no 100% win - I could lose to ONSTEAD B14 or G14 (E in the bag), STANDEE/STEANED I14 or ABSENTED 5B (latter options both with the O in the bag).

I noticed playing ICH 13H gives back HEADNOTE (S in the bag) or HASTENED (O in the bag), which didn't help. In hindsight, DIV is not a good move - as it doesn't stop losing to an E or O in the bag. I couldn't see anything that blocked ONSTEAD in both places on row 14 without giving another lane for other bingos, as something like ZIG 13G gives back DOGEATES (N in the bag) or ENDGATES (still O in the bag). I played pretty quickly throughout, though quite simply I needed more than 6-7 minutes at the end to fully think it through!

Esther: ADENOST

14B ONSTEAD +90 484

(CEGHO) +22 506

Final score: Esther 506, Austin 449.