Notakto

Notakto
A completed game of Notakto played across three boards
Genrespaper-and-pencil game
Playing time1-15 minutes

Notakto is a tic-tac-toe variant, also known as neutral or impartial tic-tac-toe.[1][2] The game is a combination of the games tic-tac-toe and Nim,[1][3] played across one or several boards with both of the players playing the same piece (an "X" or cross). The game ends when all the boards contain a three-in-a-row of Xs,[4][5][6] at which point the player to have made the last move loses the game.[7] However, in this game, unlike tic-tac-toe, there will always be a player who wins any game of Notakto.[8]

Notakto is an impartial game, where the allowable moves depend only on the state of the game and not on which player is taking their turn. When played across multiple boards it is a disjunctive game.[2] The game is attributed to professor and backgammon player Bob Koca, who is said to have invented the game in 2010, when his five-year-old nephew suggested playing a game of tic-tac-toe with both players as "X".[1]

  1. ^ a b c Cram, Scott. "Secrets of Nim (Notakto)". Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cram, Scott. "FREE iOS Nim Games". Retrieved 2016-11-25.
  4. ^ "Notakto | Board Game | BoardGameGeek". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2016-11-24.
  5. ^ "Notakto". thewessens.net. Retrieved 2016-11-24.
  6. ^ "Free Notakto Game". markhuckvale.com. Retrieved 2019-04-27.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "X-Only Tic Tac Toe : Networks Course blog for INFO 2040/CS 2850/Econ 2040/SOC 2090". blogs.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-18.