Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

January 11, 2014

Last To Go (solution)

Martin Tompa

The first thing I considered, as usual at this point in the deal, is closing the stock. If I could win either of my tens, that plus the ace of trump would give me plenty of trick points.

Winning the T would require a throw-in. I couldn’t lead T to throw Pedro in, because he would likely trump it with ♣T and then cash A for enough trick points himself. For a similar reason, I couldn’t cash my ♣A and exit with ♣Q, because then he could cash both T and A for plenty. That leaves only one possibility, leading ♣Q immediately after closing the stock. Assuming Pedro wins with ♣T, he would be on lead from this position:

Unseen cards:
AKJ
T
♣ K

Peter’s cards:
TQ

♣ A
T

Trick points: Pedro 46, Peter 47

No matter what card remains face-down in the stock, Pedro is endplayed here in a very interesting way: he is simultaneously counterforced and thrown in! He cannot lead T, because trumping that immediately gives me 68 trick points. He cannot lead ♣K, because that allows me to cash my T for even more. Those two dead-ends form the counterforce part of the endplay. That means Pedro’s only choice is to open up the spade suit, which is the throw-in part. Whatever spade he leads, he can get to only 60 trick points himself, and then must let me win my T and ♣A for enough.

A pretty combination, no? Since I am guaranteed to win 1 game point, there is no need to consider what might happen if I don’t close the stock: I can do no better than 1 game point.

© 2014 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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