Is there an advantage to going first.

This was a post on another WWF blog.

Is there an advantage to going first- as you will always be one score ahead of your opponent? When my friend used all the letters on the first turn of the game and I had all vowels I could see my first score would be very low so I chose to decline the game. This made her upset at me and I wondered if it was part of game strategy to be allowed to decline in a situation like this. ....

My reply

Jan,
Interesting post. In short you should not have resigned for the reason you gave; I write a blog and will devote a post to this but in short there are several reasons why you could/should have played on.
1. Many of the world’s best Scrabble players have around a 75% ish win record. They do not win every time! But they do learn. If you are against a good player, playing the game out will help you beat him and others later.
2. The really big scores happen as the outer premium squares become accessible or later in the game. Look at the blank board above. Playing a bingo (all 7 letters) as your first word can ONLY hit one double word premium square. So place a word with 2 x 10point letters and some others will only get around 50/60 points.
3. All vowels, then be bold and change them (keep an E or an A ?) Why play and score say 6 points using 2 letters and then wish you’d changed them when you had the chance? Better to change, get some decent letters or a good mix and recuperate later.
4. Finally you never know, nor should you presume that your opponent will continue like that.

Jan also queried the use of word finders.

...and Apps that help you make great scoring words?

Firstly WWF rules allow this. Etiquette, in my opinion, says that you should tell your opponent that you are using say "The Scrabble Rack" to name but one of many. Many players actually find these distracting and can make higher scores on their own.

Using these word finders can also help you build up your vocabulary. I would encourage any player to print out a list of all the 2 letter words and keep it with you. Why not?

Check out the post I did on that here. "Are they cheating?"