The attached program can tell what moves force a loss from any position. Below is an example of the run from one simulated game.

Please enter a sorted game state (e.g. "0-4-4-6")

(hit Control-D to break): 3-4-5-6



Moves to force loss from 3-4-5-6:

        0-3-5-6

        1-3-4-6

        2-3-4-5



normalized game state: 1-1-4-6



Moves to force loss from 1-1-4-6:

        1-1-4-4



normalized game state: 1-1-1-4



Moves to force loss from 1-1-1-4:

        0-1-1-1



normalized game state: 0-0-1-1



Moves to force loss from 0-0-1-1:

        0-0-0-1



normalized game state: ^D

The code has been coded and tested on a solaris box, but it should work with reasonably compilant C++ compiler with a semi-recent version of the STL.

John