The Schnapsen Log

September 1, 2012

Tenuous Control

Martin Tompa

You’ve been at the Café Abeles long enough now that a new order of coffee and cake has arrived. This time the cake is Pfirsichkuchen, with juicy peach halves peeking out the tops of the generous pieces. Yum. The game against Lore continues between bites.

Unseen cards:
♠ ATKJ
♥ —
♣ TK
♦ —

Your cards:
♠ Q
♥ Q
♣ AQ
♦ K

Trump: ♣J
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Lore 5, You 4
Trick points: Lore 26, You 47
On lead: You

You are ahead in this deal, due to the diamond marriage that you declared earlier. But your control is tenuous at best. Plan your play. When you think you have a good plan, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.

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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.