Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

August 24, 2012

Order from Chaos (goals)

Martin Tompa

In this deal, you have accumulated enough trick points that it’s probably not going to come down to who wins the last trick. With your threat to cash A and add 15 points to your total, Lore cannot afford to force you to trump her ♣A. On the other hand, cashing your A and Q only brings you to 61 points, and it doesn’t seem so easy to arrange to take the last trick, so you need to set up another trick somewhere. K looks like the only possibility.

You’ve got a lot to accomplish in just a few tricks. You have to cash A, pull Lore’s last trump, and set up and cash K. In what order will you do all these tasks? Think about it now before reading on, if you haven’t already figured it out. I’ve repeated the position for you below, for your convenience.

Lore: (19 points)
T
J
♣ A
TK

You: (41 points)
KJ
Q
♣ —
AQ

Trump:
Stock: Exhausted
Game points: Lore 5, You 6
On lead: You

When you are ready, go ahead and read the rest of my analysis.

© 2012 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.


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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, probability and statistics, design and analysis of algorithms, and other related courses. I have always loved playing games. Games are great tools for learning to think logically and are a wonderful component of happy family or social life.

Read about Winning Schnapsen, the very first and definitive book on the winning strategy for this fascinating game.

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