July 2014
Generating the game tree, the four winning solutions are as follows:
0,0,0,0,8,7
0,0,1,0,7,8
0,0,2,0,6,5
0,0,3,0,5,6
This month's challenge was based on research conducted by Silvia Heubach and Matthieu Dufour on versions of Nim.
They solved the game for the case of at least one empty edge (i.e., they created a closed form formula that can show if a state is a winning state), while the general case remains open.
Can you solve it?
If you have any problems you think we might enjoy, please send them in. All replies should be sent to: ponder@il.ibm.com