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Added comment about "Notakto"
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Timothy Chow
Timothy Chow
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I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ impartial tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?

EDIT: Thane Plambeck's paper, mentioned at the end of his answer below, coined the term Notakto for this game. That name seems to have caught on; for example, there is now a Wikipedia article on Notakto.

I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ impartial tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?

I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ impartial tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?

EDIT: Thane Plambeck's paper, mentioned at the end of his answer below, coined the term Notakto for this game. That name seems to have caught on; for example, there is now a Wikipedia article on Notakto.
Changed "neutral" to "impartial" (better for keyword searching)
Source Link
Timothy Chow
Timothy Chow
  • 82.7k
  • 26
  • 363
  • 587

I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ neutralimpartial tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?

I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ neutral tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?

I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ impartial tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?

Source Link
Timothy Chow
Timothy Chow
  • 82.7k
  • 26
  • 363
  • 587

Neutral tic tac toe

I heard this puzzle from Bob Koca. Suppose we play misere tic-tac-toe (a.k.a. noughts and crosses) where both players are X. Who wins?

That particular puzzle is easy to solve, but more generally, has $n \times n$ neutral tic tac toe, in both normal and misere forms, been studied before?