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Department of Mathematics,
University of California San Diego

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Food for Thought

Gavin Pettigrew

UCSD PhD Student

Winning Ways for Your Impartial Plays

Abstract:

A game of Nim is traditionally played with heaps of objects called counters. In this game, two players take turns choosing a heap and then removing any positive number of counters from that heap. Play continues until the final counter is removed, at which point the player responsible for this is declared the winner. In search of a general winning strategy for Nim, we encounter and prove several core principles of combinatorial game theory.

October 11, 2024

2:00 PM

AP&M 7321

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