diff --git a/docs/UI_DESIGN.md b/docs/UI_DESIGN.md
index 8c9bd52..c4ec658 100644
--- a/docs/UI_DESIGN.md
+++ b/docs/UI_DESIGN.md
@@ -202,6 +202,11 @@ e2e and the screenshots.
   the **move history** — a fixed-height slide-down drawer whose bottom border (and its
   shadow) pins to the board as the board slides down, instead of tracking the table as
   moves accumulate; its scrollbar gutter is reserved so the centred cells do not jitter. The
+  table is shown **scrolled to its newest row**: the grid fills top to bottom, oldest first, so an
+  untouched scroller would open on the opening moves — the least interesting end. It is pinned once
+  per showing (in landscape, once the moves reach the already-docked table), never on each arriving
+  move, so a player reading back through a long game is not yanked to the bottom by an opponent's
+  move. The
   history is a **ruled matrix** — one column per seat, aligned under the score plaques, each
   seat's moves filling its column top to bottom: no player names (the plaque heads the column)
   and no running total, just the word(s) and the move score, `WORD (12)`, centred. A non-play
@@ -247,7 +252,11 @@ e2e and the screenshots.
   portrait layout is byte-for-byte unchanged; both layouts render from the same snippets, so the
   behaviour and markup stay single-sourced. The rack is a **seven-column grid** filling the tray
   width in both layouts, so the tiles are square and as large as the row allows (the confirm ✅ takes
-  the fixed 7th slot while a play is staged).
+  the fixed 7th slot while a play is staged). The landscape tray shares the narrow left panel, so its
+  tiles — and with them the `cqw`-sized glyphs — come out smaller than the full-width portrait tray:
+  the **letter** and Erudit's **blank star** are scaled up a quarter there (a `(orientation:
+  landscape)` query in `Rack.svelte`) to stay comfortably legible, while the point value keeps its
+  size — it reads fine small, and growing it would crowd the letter on a tile that size.
 - **Highlights**: while composing a play the staged tiles are **tinted by legality** — a light
   green once they form a word (a shade darker on the committed board tiles the word runs through —
   in a **single-word game** only the main word lights up, since the engine ignores cross words),
diff --git a/ui/e2e/history.spec.ts b/ui/e2e/history.spec.ts
index 662e75e..f2b3c17 100644
--- a/ui/e2e/history.spec.ts
+++ b/ui/e2e/history.spec.ts
@@ -121,6 +121,32 @@ test('a two-finger pinch does not open the history (pinch-zoom vs swipe-down)',
   await expect(page.locator('.history')).toHaveCount(0);
 });
 
+/** tallHistoryRows stretches the move-table cells so the seeded four-move game overflows the
+ *  table's scroller — the condition under which "opens at the newest move" is observable at all
+ *  (with no overflow the assertion would hold vacuously). Injected at document start, since the
+ *  table is pinned as soon as it is shown. */
+async function tallHistoryRows(page: Page): Promise<void> {
+  await page.addInitScript(() => {
+    document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
+      const style = document.createElement('style');
+      style.textContent = '.hcell { min-height: 200px !important; }';
+      document.head.append(style);
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+test('the history opens scrolled to the newest move', async ({ page }) => {
+  await tallHistoryRows(page);
+  await openGame(page);
+  await page.locator('.scoreboard').click(); // open the history
+
+  const m = await page
+    .locator('.hgridwrap')
+    .evaluate((el) => ({ top: el.scrollTop, scroll: el.scrollHeight, client: el.clientHeight }));
+  expect(m.scroll).toBeGreaterThan(m.client); // the table really overflows — no vacuous pass
+  expect(m.top).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(m.scroll - m.client - 1); // pinned to the last row
+});
+
 test('a swipe-down on the zoomed-in board does not open the history (native scroll wins)', async ({ page }) => {
   await openGame(page);
   // Double-tap an empty cell to zoom in (two synchronous clicks = a double-tap).
diff --git a/ui/e2e/landscape.spec.ts b/ui/e2e/landscape.spec.ts
index 709c6ed..194f20e 100644
--- a/ui/e2e/landscape.spec.ts
+++ b/ui/e2e/landscape.spec.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,27 @@ test('landscape lays the game in two columns with the history docked open', asyn
   await expect(page.locator('.leftpane .tabbar')).toBeVisible();
 });
 
+test('the docked history shows the newest move', async ({ page }) => {
+  // Stretch the cells so the seeded four-move game overflows the docked table's scroller — the
+  // condition under which "shows the newest move" is observable at all. Injected at document
+  // start: in landscape the table is docked open from the mount, and it is pinned to its last row
+  // as soon as the moves arrive. The portrait (drawer) counterpart lives in history.spec.ts.
+  await page.addInitScript(() => {
+    document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
+      const style = document.createElement('style');
+      style.textContent = '.hcell { min-height: 200px !important; }';
+      document.head.append(style);
+    });
+  });
+  await openGame(page);
+
+  const m = await page
+    .locator('.hgridwrap')
+    .evaluate((el) => ({ top: el.scrollTop, scroll: el.scrollHeight, client: el.clientHeight }));
+  expect(m.scroll).toBeGreaterThan(m.client); // the table really overflows — no vacuous pass
+  expect(m.top).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(m.scroll - m.client - 1); // pinned to the last row
+});
+
 test('landscape zooms the board on a double-tap and the zoomed board overflows the pane', async ({ page }) => {
   await openGame(page);
   // Double-tap an empty cell zooms in, same as portrait. The board is height-driven here, so the
diff --git a/ui/src/game/Game.svelte b/ui/src/game/Game.svelte
index 7e238f3..9c95ce3 100644
--- a/ui/src/game/Game.svelte
+++ b/ui/src/game/Game.svelte
@@ -1358,6 +1358,29 @@
     }
   });
 
+  // The move table's scroller (the grid between the sticky header and the pinned bag footer).
+  let hgridEl = $state<HTMLDivElement>();
+  // Whether the table has already been pinned to its newest row for the current showing.
+  // A plain flag (not $state): the effect below writes it, and tracking it would re-run the
+  // effect from its own write.
+  let historyPinned = false;
+  // The history opens showing the LATEST moves: the grid fills top to bottom (oldest first), so
+  // an untouched scroller would open on the opening moves — the least interesting end. It is
+  // pinned once per showing, not on every arriving move, so a player who has scrolled back
+  // through a long game is not yanked to the bottom by an opponent's move. In landscape the
+  // table is docked open from the start, so the moves usually arrive after it mounts — hence
+  // the wait for a non-empty journal rather than a plain "on open".
+  $effect(() => {
+    const el = hgridEl;
+    if (!historyShown || !el) {
+      historyPinned = false;
+      return;
+    }
+    if (historyPinned || moves.length === 0) return;
+    historyPinned = true;
+    el.scrollTop = el.scrollHeight;
+  });
+
   // Friend state for the in-game "add friend" affordance (the 🤝 in each opponent's score
   // card while the history is open), derived from the server so it is correct across reloads
   // and live-updates when a request is answered: `friends` are the caller's accepted friends;
@@ -1657,7 +1680,7 @@
         </button>
       {/if}
     </div>
-    <div class="hgridwrap">
+    <div class="hgridwrap" bind:this={hgridEl}>
       <div class="hgrid" style="grid-template-columns: repeat({view.game.seats.length}, 1fr)">
         {#each historyGrid(moves, view.game.seats.length, thinkingSeat) as row}
           {#each row as cell (cell.player)}
diff --git a/ui/src/game/Rack.svelte b/ui/src/game/Rack.svelte
index 28d6c13..8210f4a 100644
--- a/ui/src/game/Rack.svelte
+++ b/ui/src/game/Rack.svelte
@@ -159,4 +159,19 @@
     font-size: 7.6vmin; /* cqw fallback for Chrome < 105 */
     font-size: 7.6cqw;
   }
+  /* Landscape docks the rack in the narrow left panel (Game.svelte's .leftpane), so its tiles —
+     and with them the cqw-sized glyphs — come out markedly smaller than the full-width portrait
+     tray. Scale the tile face up by a quarter there so the letters stay comfortably legible; the
+     point value keeps its size (it reads fine small, and growing it would crowd the letter on a
+     tile this size). The media query matches the one that selects the landscape layout. */
+  @media (orientation: landscape) {
+    .letter {
+      font-size: 7.5vmin; /* cqw fallback for Chrome < 105 */
+      font-size: 7.5cqw;
+    }
+    .star {
+      font-size: 9.5vmin; /* cqw fallback for Chrome < 105 */
+      font-size: 9.5cqw;
+    }
+  }
 </style>