TacTix

TacTix is a two-player strategy game invented by Piet Hein. It is essentially a two-dimensional version of Nim. Though the game is non-trivial, the first player can always win, at least in the 5 by 5 matrix version by choosing the center piece and symmetrically mirroring the second player's moves. Players alternate taking pieces away from a 5 by 5 grid, as many contiguous pieces as desired from a single row or column.

The game is often used as a programming exercise, and many versions are available on the web as Java applets.

ASCII diagram:

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External Link

• TacTix applet (http://thinks.com/java/tactix/tactix.htm) from thinks.com