Problem #PRU-67317

Problems Discrete Mathematics Game Theory

Problem

Two players are playing a game with a heap of \(100\) rocks, and they take turns removing rocks from the heap. The rules are the following: the first player takes one rock, the second can take either one or two rocks, then the first player can take one, two or three rocks, then the second can take \(1\), \(2\), \(3\) or \(4\) rocks from the pile and so on. That is, on each turn, the players have one more option for the number of rocks that they can take. The one who takes the last rock wins. Who has the winning strategy?