English
Related papers

Related papers: The computational complexity of Minesweeper

200 papers

Tetravex is a widely played one person computer game in which you are given $n^2$ unit tiles, each edge of which is labelled with a number. The objective is to place each tile within a $n$ by $n$ square such that all neighbouring edges are…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2012-04-18 Yasuhiko Takenaga , Toby Walsh

Many problems in compositional synthesis and verification of multi-agent systems -- such as rational verification and assume-guarantee verification in probabilistic systems -- reduce to reasoning about two-player multi-objective stochastic…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-16 Moritz Graf , Anthony Lin , Rupak Majumdar

We consider the problem of solving random parity games. We prove that parity games exibit a phase transition threshold above $d_P$, so that when the degree of the graph that defines the game has a degree $d > d_P$ then there exists a…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2020-07-17 Richard Combes , Mikael Touati

Concavity and its refinements underpin tractability in multiplayer games, where players independently choose actions to maximize their own payoffs which depend on other players' actions. In concave games, where players' strategy sets are…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-12-12 Vincent Leon , Iosif Sakos , Ryann Sim , Antonios Varvitsiotis

We show that, by using multiplicative weights in a game-theoretic thought experiment (and an important convexity result on the composition of multiplicative weights with the relative entropy function), a symmetric bimatrix game (that is, a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-04-24 Ioannis Avramopoulos

In combinatorial game theory, the winning player for a position in normal play is analyzed and characterized via algebraic operations. Such analyses define a value for each position, called a game value. A game (ruleset) is called universal…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2023-10-04 Kanae Yoshiwatari , Hironori Kiya , Koki Suetsugu , Tesshu Hanaka , Hirotaka Ono

Using the notion of visibility representations, our paper establishes a new property of instances of the Nondeterministic Constraint Logic (NCL) problem (a PSPACE-complete problem that is very convenient to prove the PSPACE-hardness of…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2023-04-27 Michael C. Chavrimootoo

In this paper we study the computational complexity of the game of Scrabble. We prove the PSPACE-completeness of a derandomized model of the game, answering an open question of Erik Demaine and Robert Hearn.

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2012-01-26 Michael Lampis , Valia Mitsou , Karolina Sołtys

The Searchlight Scheduling Problem was first studied in 2D polygons, where the goal is for point guards in fixed positions to rotate searchlights to catch an evasive intruder. Here the problem is extended to 3D polyhedra, with the guards…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2015-03-19 Giovanni Viglietta

We prove the computational intractability of rotating and placing $n$ square tiles into a $1 \times n$ array such that adjacent tiles are compatible--either equal edge colors, as in edge-matching puzzles, or matching tab/pocket shapes, as…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2017-01-03 Jeffrey Bosboom , Erik D. Demaine , Martin L. Demaine , Adam Hesterberg , Pasin Manurangsi , Anak Yodpinyanee

We study the complexity of solving two-player infinite duration games played on a fixed finite graph, where the control of a node is not predetermined but rather assigned randomly. In classic random-turn games, control of each node is…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-01-13 Sarvin Bahmani , Rasmus Ibsen-Jensen , Soumyajit Paul , Sven Schewe , Friedrich Slivovsky , Qiyi Tang , Dominik Wojtczak , Shufang Zhu

In the popular computer game of Tetris, the player is given a sequence of tetromino pieces and must pack them into a rectangular gameboard initially occupied by a given configuration of filled squares; any completely filled row of the…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Erik D. Demaine , Susan Hohenberger , David Liben-Nowell

Energy games belong to a class of turn-based two-player infinite-duration games}played on a weighted directed graph. It is one of the rare and intriguing combinatorial problems that lie in ${\sf NP} \cap {\sf co\mbox{-}NP}$, but are not…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2018-03-02 Krishnendu Chatterjee , Monika Henzinger , Sebastian Krinninger , Danupon Nanongkai

Temporal graphs extend ordinary graphs with discrete time that affects the availability of edges. We consider solving games played on temporal graphs where one player aims to explore the graph, i.e., visit all vertices. The complexity…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-06-16 Pete Austin , Nicolas Mazzocchi , Sougata Bose , Patrick Totzke

We establish that the subgame perfect equilibrium (SPE) threshold problem for mean-payoff games is NP-complete. While the SPE threshold problem was recently shown to be decidable (in doubly exponential time) and NP-hard, its exact worst…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-04-26 Léonard Brice , Jean-François Raskin , Marie van den Bogaard

We consider the computational complexity of Hearthstone which is a popular online CCG (collectible card game). We reduce a PSPACE-complete problem, the partition game, to perfect information Hearthstone in which there is no hidden…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2023-05-23 Zhujun Zhang

Minesweeper as a puzzle video game and is proved that it is an NPC problem. We use CSP, Logic Inference and Sampling to make a minesweeper solver and we limit us each select in 5 seconds.

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2018-10-09 Yimin Tang , Tian Jiang , Yanpeng Hu

A poset game is a two-player game played over a partially ordered set (poset) in which the players alternate choosing an element of the poset, removing it and all elements greater than it. The first player unable to select an element of the…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2015-03-20 Daniel Grier

We describe a new algorithm, Minesweeper, that is able to satisfy stronger runtime guarantees than previous join algorithms (colloquially, `beyond worst-case guarantees') for data in indexed search trees. Our first contribution is…

Databases · Computer Science 2014-04-01 Hung Q. Ngo , Dung T. Nguyen , Christopher Ré , Atri Rudra

Positional games were introduced by Hales and Jewett in 1963, and their study became more popular after Erdos and Selfridge's first result on their connection to Ramsey theory and hypergraph coloring in 1973. Several conventions of these…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-09-04 Valentin Gledel , Nacim Oijid , Sébastien Tavenas , Stéphan Thomassé