This is one of the OLD POTM problems

Long version of the problem.

Back to the list of problems.

Short Problem Description

The deadline was September 3, 1995. On to the problem:

C H O M P !

This summer, we're eating cookies. Eat a lot of cookies and DON'T eat the last poison cookie and YOU could win the next Programmer Of The Month. 
You write a program to play a game      X  O  O  O  O  O  O  O
called "chomp" and play against all     O  O  O  O  O  O  O  O
the other folks who send in programs.   O  O  O  O  *  *  *  *
                                        O  O  O  O  *  *  *  *
Head-to-head, winner-take-all.          O  O  O  O  *  *  *  *
Programs alternately eat a bunch of cookies by choosing a row and column and "eating" everything below and to the right of it. The example above shows a 5x8 starting grid after one chomp at row 3, column 5 that ate 12 cookies. The poison cookie is always in the upper left hand corner. When it's your turn, take a chomp and avoid being the one who is forced to eat the poison cookie. THIS POTM is not original, some research may pay off!

If you want to compete - you'll need the details. Simply send mail to enter@potm.ffast.att.com and I'll ship you the details and put you on the weekly status mailing list for this problem.

enter@potm.ffast.att.com [or, if this bounces:]
fah@ffast.ffast.att.com [or, as a last resort:]
hicinbothem@attmail.att.com

Hope you'll consider having some fun and entering this one!!! Deadline will be 11:59 PM EST on Sunday September 3, 1995 - BUT, as previous participants will tell you - it PAYS to enter early (you can always update your entry!)