Psellos
Contemporary Development With Functional Programming

Schnapsen Log Archives

Columns for 2012

The Card Game Called Schnapsen, Mar 5
Safety First, Mar 7
To Duck or Not to Duck, Mar 14
Who Laughs Last, Mar 21
"You First." "No, You First.", Mar 27
Elimination Play, Apr 2
The Mother of Invention, Apr 9
What Authorities Say About the Rules, Apr 14
Early in the Deal, Apr 20
At Trick One, Apr 22
Expected Game Points, Apr 27
It All Depends, May 3
From a Position of Strength, May 10
Forcing the Issue, May 16
Counterforce Play, May 24
On the Brink of Defeat, May 31
Close Call, Jun 7
Get Out of the Way, Jun 19
Desperate Straits, Jun 25
The Finish Line, Jun 30
Group Theory and Random Sampling, Jul 3
How Much Help Can You Expect?, Jul 8
All the Aces, Jul 13
To Duck and Not to Duck, Jul 17
Avoid the Ducking Ruff, Jul 22
As Luck Would Have It, Jul 27
Trump Entries, Jul 29
Make a Virtue of Necessity, Aug 2
Exit Cards, Stoppers, and Optimal Endplay, Aug 8
A Theory Concerning the Last Trick, Aug 13
Tempo, Aug 17
Losing Tempo, Aug 20
Order from Chaos, Aug 24
Tenuous Control, Sep 1
Taking the Initiative, Sep 14
Only Minds Infer, Sep 21
X-ray Vision, Sep 26
What Else Can Be Inferred?, Sep 29
Anything Else?, Oct 9
Intuition, Oct 14
Where’s the Endplay?, Oct 21
On the Brink of Success, Oct 23
Odds and Expectation, Oct 27
Race to the End, Nov 2
Entries from Thin Air, Nov 9
Vienna Tournament, Nov 16
More on Race to the End, Nov 23
Putting On Pressure, Nov 25
Make It Progressive, Nov 30
Setting Up the Endplay, Dec 6
Postponing Defeat, Dec 15
Too Clever By Half, Dec 23
The Homewrecker, Dec 28
The Last Trick, Dec 30

Columns for 2013

Who’s in Control?, Jan 3
The Lowly Jack, Jan 10
Protection, Jan 21
Schemes for Remembering Cards, Jan 28
Danger at Every Turn, Jan 29
Imperfect Information, Feb 5
A Bird in Hand, Feb 11
On a Wing and a Prayer, Feb 16
An Unusual Capture, Feb 20
Where’s the Endplay?, Feb 26
To the Brave Go the Spoils, Mar 7
A Multitude of Options, Mar 12
How Much Do You Trust to Chance?, Mar 27
Rags and Riches, Apr 13
Homework on Expected Values, Apr 26

About the Author

Martin Tompa

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.

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Recent Columns

April
Homework on Expected Values, Apr 26
Rags and Riches, Apr 13
March
How Much Do You Trust to Chance?, Mar 27
A Multitude of Options, Mar 12
To the Brave Go the Spoils, Mar 7
February
Where's the Endplay?, Feb 26

Archives

2013
2012