The Schnapsen Log

September 26, 2012

X-ray Vision

Martin Tompa

At the Black Eagle club, this evening’s game against the befeathered Katharina continues.

Unseen cards:
♠ QJ
♥ K
♣ —
♦ ATK

Your cards:
♠ AT
♥ A
♣ K
♦ J

Trump: ♠K
Stock: 1 face-down card
Game points: Katharina 4, You 5
Trick points: Katharina 51, You 13
On lead: Katharina

With a flourish of her head and the resulting jiggle of a hundred feathers, Katharina exchanges her ♠J for ♠K and then leads ♦K. Plan your play. 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.