Abstract

This note examines when the worst shot should aim his first shot into the air in a game of the truel presented by Singh (Fermat's Enigma: the epic quest to solve the world's greatest mathematical problem. Walker and Company, New York, 1987) in his popular book on Fermat's Last Theorem. It also analyzes a variant of the game. Finally, it considers the possibility of the situation in which the worst and better shots are both willing to reverse the order of their moves in the original game