Psellos
Life So Short, the Craft So Long to Learn

The Schnapsen Log

January 17, 2017

The Battle and the War

Martin Tompa

You are near the end of a very tight game against a lucky opponent. Each of you is within 1 or 2 game points of winning when you find yourself on lead in the following position:

Concealed cards:
Q
AKJ
♣ AKQ
J

Your cards:
AK
TQ
♣ —
A

Trump: J
Stock: 3 face-down cards
Game points: Opponent 1, You 2
Trick points: Opponent 7, You 32
On lead: You

No one has declared a marriage or exchanged the trump. What should you do? When you have your answer ready, you are welcome to read my analysis.

© 2017 Martin Tompa. All rights reserved.


Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

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.

Subscribe

Getting Started

Links for Schnapsen and Sixty-Six

Links in German

Links in Hungarian

Recent Columns

September
Sidestep a Few Landmines, Sep 2
June
Two Last-Trick Problems, Jun 27
May
More Extremes of Luck, May 21
April
Grasping at Straws, Apr 4
March
A New Scheme for Remembering Cards, Mar 23
September
As Luck Would Have It, Sep 9

Archives

2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012