>That is, I suspect it's possible, but difficult for a human player to surmise the probability of tiles hidden in an opponents pieces based on the words they've

>That is, I suspect it's possible, but difficult for a human player to surmise the probability of tiles hidden in an opponents pieces based on the words they've recently played (or not played) - but being able to do so, based on a count of which tiles have already been played and are visible on the table, is probably more challenging - but straightforward for a computer. I have played a very small amount of competitive Scrabble and a few of my friends are playing in the National tournament that this article references. What you describe is utterly standard by even mediocre tournament players. Tournament Scrabble players do a lot more than memorize good lists of 2s and 3s. It is truly impressive how deep the game can be.