Two students of maths are playing the following game – each takes turn to pick a number from the following set {-4, -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3, +4}. Once a number is picked, it is not replaced. And they keep playing till they run out of numbers. And they start all over again.

Whoever can come up with three numbers that add up to 0 first wins the game. It does not have to be the only three numbers she has. For example, she might have picked -3 and then in next chance picked +2. Hoping to pick +1 next. But other player seeing that, would  have taken away the +1 in the next move. So let’s say the original person next picked 4. And then if she got a chance to pick -1 in the next move, she would have -3, +2, +4 and -1. Note that -3, +4 and -1 adds to 0. So she wins.

Now, here is the question: If you are the first player, is there a strategy for you to win? If you are the second player, is there a strategy for you to win?

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