Game Play and Illustration
The normal game is between two players and played with three heaps of any number of objects. The two players alternate taking any number of objects from any single one of the heaps. The goal is to be the last to take an object. In misère play, the goal is instead to ensure that the opponent is forced to take the last remaining object.
The following example game is played between fictional players Alice and Bob who start with heaps of three, four and five objects. The winning strategy is for a player to leave always an even total number of 1's, 2's, and 4's. In the example, Alice implements this strategy.
Sizes of heaps Moves A B C 3 4 5 Alice takes 2 from A 1 4 5 Bob takes 3 from C 1 4 2 Alice takes 1 from B 1 3 2 Bob takes 1 from B 1 2 2 Alice takes entire A heap, leaving two 2s. 0 2 2 Bob takes 1 from B 0 1 2 Alice takes 1 from C leaving two 1s. (In misère play she would take 2 from C leaving (0, 1, 0).) 0 1 1 Bob takes 1 from B 0 0 1 Alice takes entire C heap and wins.Read more about this topic: Nim
Famous quotes containing the words game, play and/or illustration:
“Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace,
Seeing the game from him escapt away,
Sits downe to rest him in some shady place,”
—Edmund Spenser (1552?–1599)
“There has been in our time a lack of reliance on language and a lack of experimentation which are frightening to anyone who sees them as symptoms. We know the phenomenon of stage-fright: it holds the player shivering, incapable of speech or action. Perhaps there is an audience-fright which the play can feel, which leaves him with these incapacities.”
—Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)
“What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?”
—Henry James (1843–1916)