Nim

About Nim

Nim is one of the oldest strategy games there is, and one of the few with a perfect strategy hiding inside it. Rows of balls sit on the table; on your turn you take as many as you like — but only from one row. Whoever takes the very last ball wins. It looks like luck at first, and then one day a child spots the pattern and starts winning every time. Every layout here is one a good player can win from.

Nim is one of our board & strategy games for kids. This one plays in the iPhone and iPad app rather than in the browser, but 33 of our games are free to play right here — browse the full library to find them. It is also in our logic games for kids and classic games for kids collections.

How to Play

• Tap a ball to take it and every ball to its right in that row.
• You must take at least one, and only from a single row.
• Then the computer takes its turn.
• Whoever takes the very last ball wins.

Tips & Tricks

• Try to leave the rows balanced — two equal rows are strong.
• Think about what you're leaving behind, not what you're taking.
• On Hard the computer plays perfectly, so you have to be exact.

What It Practises

Nim is mostly for fun, but it still asks something of a child:

• Thinking a move ahead
• Working backwards from the goal

Nim — Frequently Asked Questions