Can the game "Chopsticks" be mathematically solved?

1.6k Views Asked by At

If you don't know the game chopsticks, it goes like this: You start out with two of your hands in front of you with 1 finger out on each, and your opponent does the same. One taps the others hand and depending on what the value (number of fingers) the first hand had, the hand that was tapped increases by that amount. If a hand's value is tapped to 5, the hand is "dead", it goes back to a value of 0 and cant be tapped by other hands. If a tap where a hand of 2 hits a hand of 4, or any other tap resulting in a hand's value of more than, then the value of the tapped hand becomes the sum of the 2 numbers minus 5. A hand can "bump" any amount of its fingers to another (non-opponent) hand. It can do the same with hands with a value of 0. The winner is the last player with hands.

I am wondering, with these rules, is it possible to find an algorithm where one player always wins or always a draw?

Also, sorry if the rules are a bit all over the place.