ABSTRACT
In the top right corner, we have 3 boxes that can be made into either one long chain or zero long chains; and any move there will force the situation one way or the other. Hence its nimber is 2. In the middle is an 8-box loop, with nimber 0. The rest of the game is a Kayles-vine with 5 tendrils. The nimbers for Kayles are:
n: 0 1 2 3 4 5 … nimber: 0 1 2 3 1 4 …
So the nimber of the whole game is now *2 + *4 = *6. We must change the 4 to a 2. As seen from the above list of nimbers for Kayles, this can be accomplished only by changing the 5-tendrils into 1-tendril and 3-tendrils. This requires a tendril move rather than a stem move, and there are precisely two such moves, marked above.
