Gobblet Gobblers

Alignment & m,n,k games · all families · data

The first player can force a win in 13 plies.


Result	First player wins
Strength	Strong
Method	Retrograde analysis
Year	2024
Solved by	possiblywrong
Source	possiblywrong 2024*
Board	3×3; each player has two pieces in each of three sizes
State space	341,024,631
Distance to result	13 plies from the empty board with optimal play.
Evidence	self-archived*

* Self-archived: the result is available only from its authors (a repository, a post, a deposit), not yet refereed, formally verified or reproduced by someone else. The mark comes off when one of those happens. It applies to this repo’s own results too.

Solution history

Date	Size or opening	Result	Strength	Credit	Source
2024	standard game	first player wins	Strong	possiblywrong	source

One row, derived from the record’s year, solver and primary source; no fuller history is recorded yet.

Engines

gobblet (Possibly Wrong) (solver): perfect play, source

References

Resources

Code

Gobblet Gobblers solver

Notes

Gobblet Gobblers is a three-in-a-row game on a 3×3 board. Each player has two pieces in each of three sizes. A turn places a reserve piece or moves an exposed piece already on the board; larger pieces can cover smaller pieces belonging to either player.

The author’s solver enumerates reachable states from the empty board and works wins and losses backward from terminal states, leaving draws where neither side can force a win. The reported 341,024,631 states merge board and player symmetries.

The first player wins in 13 plies with optimal play. Some other winning openings allow the defender to delay defeat until ply 15.