James Fixx described this two-player game in his 1972 book Games for the Superintelligent, although it is certainly older.
The game begins with matchsticks arranged in three rows: three on the top, five in the middle and seven at the bottom. Players take turns removing matches, from only one row at a time. The object is to force one's opponent to remove the last match.
The solution involves [...] [tvtropes.org]