"Go First Dice" implemented and tested.

gofirst.py

# see : http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2012/sep/18/puzzler-go-first-dice

from random import randint, shuffle
from itertools import product

dice = [[1, 8, 11, 14, 19, 22, 27, 30, 35, 38, 41, 48], [2, 7, 10, 15, 18, 23, 26, 31, 34, 39, 42, 47], [3, 6, 12, 13, 17, 24, 25, 32, 36, 37, 43, 46], [4, 5, 9, 16, 20, 21, 28, 29, 33, 40, 44, 45]]

def test():
    """Runs a test to make sure that the dice are fair.  a = test() should
    give :

    >>> [[a[y].count(x) for x in xrange(0,4)] for y in xrange(1,5)]
    [
        [5184, 5184, 5184, 5184], 
        [5184, 5184, 5184, 5184], 
        [5184, 5184, 5184, 5184], 
        [5184, 5184, 5184, 5184]
    ]
    """

    p = [None,[],[],[],[]]
    for r in product(dice[0], dice[1], dice[2], dice[3]):
        z = sorted(zip((1,2,3,4), r), lambda x,y: y[1] - x[1])
        for k in xrange(0,4):
            # p[player].append(turn order)
            p[z[k][0]].append(k)
    return p

if __name__ == '__main__':
    p = 1
    for x in dice:
        shuffle(x)
        print 'player ', p,
        print x[randint(0,11)]
        p += 1