The Schnapsen Log

June 7, 2012

Close Call

Martin Tompa

It’s the very next deal against your archrival Itell Reding at the weekly Black Eagle tournament. Itell needs just one more game point to knock you out of the tournament. The previous deal closed the gap a bit, but there is still lots of work to be done before you can relax. Itell remains his usual cocky and patronizing self as you find yourself in this position with the stock nearly exhausted:

Unseen cards:
♠ Q
♥ TK
♣ A
♦ AK

Your cards:
♠ —
♥ AQ
♣ KQ
♦ Q

Trump: ♥J
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Itell 1, You 4
Trick points: Itell 27, You 24
On lead: Itell

You made a fortunate trump exchange to get ♥A earlier in the deal. Itell now leads ♠Q. What should you do? When you think you have a good plan, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Martin Tompa (tompa@psellos.com)

I am a Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where I teach discrete mathematics, logic, probability, design and analysis of algorithms, and other related courses. I have always loved playing games. Games are great tools for learning to think logically but, more important, seem to me an integral part of happy family or social life. I will be delighted if game-players, parents, teachers, and students find this series fun and useful.

My excitement about Schnapsen was rekindled by playing against an iPhone program called Master Schnapsen/66 written by two friends at Psellos. Set to play at its “Master” level of difficulty, this program is one of the two most formidable opponents I have found. It comes up with surprising and brilliant plays, and I have learned an enormous amount of Schnapsen strategy by playing with it. Nearly every deal in this Schnapsen Log arose during those hours of playing with Master Schnapsen/66.