Cram (game)

Cram is a mathematical game played on a sheet of graph paper (or any type of grid).

It has been called by many names, including "plugg" by Geoffrey Mott-Smith, and "dots-and-pairs".

[1] The game is played on a sheet of graph paper, with any set of designs traced out.

In the even-by-odd case, the first player wins by similar symmetry play.

[2] Symmetry play is a useless strategy in the misère version, because in that case it would only ensure the player that they lose.

In 2009, Martin Schneider computed the misère grundy values up to the 3 × 9, 4 × 6, and 5 × 5 board.

[5] The adjacent table details the known misère results for boards with both dimensions greater than 3.

Example of a Cram game. In the normal version, the blue player wins.