A 3x3 array of counters is laid out. Players take turns removing counters. The rule for removing counters is to pick a row or column and take any 1,2 or 3 from it. Whoever removes the last counter wins.
Does the first or second player have a winning strategy?
What is this strategy?
(In reply to
Winning Strategy (spoiler) by Steve Herman)
Say the first player has taken the center piece. Then the second player can take a corner and an adjacent mid-edge piece, leaving, say,
*
* *
***
from which it's impossible to leave one of the two configurations given.
The same configuration is available to the second player if the first has chosen to remove a corner piece.
If the first player's chosen first piece to remove is the center of an edge, then the second player can leave
* *
*
***
and again the first player can't put it into one of the shown configurations.
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Posted by Charlie
on 2009-06-25 17:05:26 |
re: Winning Strategy (spoiler)
