Eternal Picaria

Abstract

Picaria is a traditional board game, played by the Zuni tribe of the American Southwest and other parts of the world, such as a rural Southwest region in Sweden. It is related to the popular children's game of Tic-tac-toe, but the 2 players have only 3 stones each, and in the second phase of the game, pieces are slided, along specified move edges, in attempts to create the three-in-a-row. We provide a rigorous solution, and prove that the game is a draw; moreover our solution gives insights to strategies that players can use.