Dash?

[BMAD]

There is an old game that I learned back in my home country when I was a child but the name escapes me.  When teaching it to my students, I call it 'dash' whose meaning will be obvious.

Setup the 'game board' as follows: Row 1: 1 dash, Row 2: 3 dashes, Row 3: 5 dashes, and Row 4: 7 dashes

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The requirements of the game are simple:

1. Each player takes turns circling any amount they like in any row. 
2. Each player must circle at least 1 not-circled dash on their turn. 
3. A player does can circle dashes that are not adjacent. 
4. The player may not circle dashes in more than one row in a single turn. 
5. The last player to circle a dash is the loser.

Is the advantage for the first player or second player or is this a fair game?

[jasen]

Advantage for the 1st player, because he can keep tracking and control remaining dashes.

[Pickett]

The name of the game is "Nim" for what it's worth...

Full strategies and math behind it can be found on the Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nim