Not the Same

Level pending

Two players are playing Not the Same. They alternate turns removing stones from a pile with N > 0 N>0 stones. On the first turn, the first player removes 1 1 , 2 2 , or 3 3 stones. On each subsequent turn, the player removes 1 1 , 2 2 , or 3 3 stones from the pile, but they cannot remove the same number of stones as the previous player removed in the previous turn. If a player cannot go, they forfeit their turn. The player who removes the last stone wins.

For how many positive integer initial pile sizes N 1000 N\le 1000 does the first player have a winning strategy?

Details and Assumption

If a player forfeits their turn, on the next turn the next player can remove 1, 2, or 3 stones.

A player cannot remove more stones than are left in the pile.


The answer is 750.

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