Nim

nim, ancient game of obscure origin in which two players alternate in removing objects from different piles, with the player who removes the last object winning in the normal play variant and losing in another common variant.

In its generalized form, any number of objects (counters) are divided arbitrarily into several piles. Two people play alternately; each, in turn, selects any one of the piles and removes from it all the objects, or as many as he chooses, but at least one object. The player removing the last object wins. Every combination of the objects may be considered “safe” or “unsafe”; i.e., if the position left by a player after his move assures a win for that player, the position is called safe. Every unsafe position can be made safe by an appropriate move, but every safe position is made unsafe by any move. To determine whether a position is safe or unsafe, the number of objects in each pile may be expressed in binary notation: if each column adds up to zero or an even number, the position is safe. For example, if at some stage of the game, three piles contain 4, 9, and 15 objects, the calculation is:

Since the second column from the right adds up to 1, an odd number, the given combination is unsafe. A skillful player will always move so that every unsafe position left to him is changed to a safe position.

A similar game is played with just two piles; in each draw the player may take objects from either pile or from both piles, but in the latter event he must take the same number from each pile. The player taking the last counter is the winner.

Games such as nim make considerable demands upon the player’s ability to translate decimal numbers into binary numbers and vice versa. Since digital computers operate on the binary system, however, it is possible to program a computer (or build a special machine) that will play a perfect game. Such a machine was invented by American physicist Edward Uhler Condon and an associate; their automatic Nimatron was exhibited at the New York World’s Fair in 1940.

Games of this sort seem to be widely played the world over. The game of pebbles, also known as the game of odds, is played by two people who start with an odd number of pebbles placed in a pile. Taking turns, each player draws one, or two, or three pebbles from the pile. When all the pebbles have been drawn, the player who has an odd number of them in his possession wins.

Predecessors of these games, in which players distribute pebbles, seeds, or other counters into rows of holes under varying rules, have been played for centuries in Africa and Asia, where they are called mancala.