Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays

Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays by Elwyn Berlekamp, John Conway, and Richard Guy is a compendium of information on mathematical games. It was first published in 1982 in two volumes, one focusing on Conway's game theory and surreal numbers, and the other concentrating on a number of specific games.

A republication of the work by A K Peters splits the content into four volumes.

Along with analysis of various extant games, and analysis of game theory in general, Winning Ways describes a number of new games, many of which are popular today. Examples of this type include Sprouts and Philosopher's Football. They also analyzed Dots and Boxes and a number of Nim variations.

Along with games both common and uncommon, the authors of Winning Ways analyzed a number of puzzles, including Soma and Rubik's Cube.

See also Combinatorial game theory.