Clark Kinniard's 1946 book Encyclopedia of Puzzles and Pastimes seems to be the first appearance of this three person game. In general, three-player games are difficult, due to the strategy of ganging up on the leader. Even in nature, when three competing animals are near each other, they will often not attack, since the unharmed third can take on the weakened survivor of the first main battle. In 1954, Martin Shibik introduced the word truel (a three person duel) in his paper "Does the Fittest Necessarily Survive?" Calculating the odds between two players involves infinite series. The set-up for B vs C is shown below.