= Misère play
Misère play is the terminal convention in which the player making the last legal move loses. For finite games without draws, this means a player whose turn begins with no legal move wins. The same move rules with the <normal-play convention> instead make that player lose.
A one-heap removal game makes the difference immediate. If a single object remains and the only move removes it, the player to move loses under misère play and wins under normal play. With two unit heaps in <Nim>, the first player removes one heap and forces the other player to take the last object, so the position is misère winning even though its normal-play nim-sum is zero.
Changing the terminal condition changes the recursive winning/losing classification. Normal-play formulas, including unrestricted use of <Sprague-Grundy theory>, therefore cannot be transferred unchanged. Infinite play requires a separate draw or outcome convention.
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