English

The $3\times 3$ Solution to the Game of Tak

General Mathematics 2025-09-09 v1

Abstract

We provide answers to natural combinatorial questions which arise from learning the rules to Tak. We solve the discarded cases of the 3×33\times 3 game not previously considered by Joshua Achiam, showing that Player 11 has a forced win from any starting position, including random ones. Diagrams for both his and our solutions are provided in the hopes of making the results more accessible.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.05844,
  title  = {The $3\times 3$ Solution to the Game of Tak},
  author = {Joseph E. Marrow},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.05844},
  year   = {2025}
}