Hunches

Having boasted how sure his hunches were, he was forced to eat his hat when he guessed wrong.

Hunches are important, isn't that right?

Police follow hunches all the time.

The problem was that he only had hunches.

In the midst of a chess match we rarely have hunches about—or bother trying to guess—the detailed thinking of our opponent; we expect her to see what’s there to be.