Le Monde puzzle [#910]

An game-theoretic Le Monde mathematical puzzle:

A two-person game consists in choosing an integer N and for each player to successively pick a number in {1,…,N} under the constraint that a player cannot pick a number next to a number this player has already picked. Is there a winning strategy for either player and for all values of N?

for which I simply coded a recursive optimal strategy function:

gain=function(mine,yours,none){
  fine=none
  if (length(mine)>0)
    fine=none[apply(abs(outer(mine,none,"-")),
              2,min)>1]
  if (length(fine)>0){
   rwrd=0
   for (i in 1:length(fine)) 
    rwrd=max(rwrd,1-gain(yours,c(mine,fine[i]),
         none[none!=fine[i]]))
   return(rwrd)}
  return(0)}

which returned a zero gain, hence no winning strategy for all values of N except 1.

> gain(NULL,NULL,1)
[1] 1
> gain(NULL,NULL,1:2)
[1] 0
> gain(NULL,NULL,1:3)
[1] 0
> gain(NULL,NULL,1:4)
[1] 0

Meaning that the starting player is always the loser!