Question 51
Xavier and Olivier are playing tic-tac-toe in the rectangular grid of size $3 \times 3$ with modified rules. On every move, a player chooses an empty square and writes his token into it. Players take turns alternately, with Xavier starting. The player who is the first to occupy any three squares that either are all in the same row or column or lie in pairwise distinct rows and columns wins. Does either of the players have a winning strategy and if yes then who?