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We present a general algorithm to order moves so as to speedup exact game solvers. It uses online learning of playout policies and Monte Carlo Tree Search. The learned policy and the information in the Monte Carlo tree are used to order…
We introduce and study Minkowski games. These are two player games, where the players take turns to chose positions in $\mathbb{R}^d$ based on some rules. Variants include boundedness games, where one player wants to keep the positions…
A simple game $(N,v)$ is given by a set $N$ of $n$ players and a partition of $2^N$ into a set $\mathcal{L}$ of losing coalitions $L$ with value $v(L)=0$ that is closed under taking subsets and a set $\mathcal{W}$ of winning coalitions $W$…
We indulge in what mathematicians call frivolous activities. In Arithmetic Billiards, a ball is bouncing around in a rectangle. In Parity Checkers we place checkers on a checkerboard under certain parity constraints. Both activities turn…
Suppose we place checkers in the lower left corner of a Go board and wish to move them to the upper right corner in as few moves as possible, where the pieces move as in the game of Chinese checkers. Auslander, Benjamin, and Wilkerson in…
Simple stochastic games are turn-based 2.5-player zero-sum graph games with a reachability objective. The problem is to compute the winning probability as well as the optimal strategies of both players. In this paper, we compare the three…
We prove for every $n\ge4$ the existence of an $n$-player game in normal form with integer payoffs that has a unique Nash equilibrium, which is fully mixed. In the equilibrium, each probability weight is an algebraic number of degree…
We introduce a two-player game, in which each player extends a given sequence by picking a free element in a domain D of the real line. The aim of the players is to control the parity of the number of transpositions necessary to put the…
In games like chess, strategy evolves dramatically across distinct phases - the opening, middlegame, and endgame each demand different forms of reasoning and decision-making. Yet, many modern chess engines rely on a single neural network to…
Zeckendorf proved that every positive integer can be written as a decomposition of non-adjacent Fibonacci numbers. Baird-Smith, Epstein, Flint, and Miller converted the process of decomposing an integer $n$ into a 2-player game, using the…
Simple stochastic games are turn-based 2.5-player zero-sum graph games with a reachability objective. The problem is to compute the winning probability as well as the optimal strategies of both players. In this paper, we compare the three…
Two standard algorithms for approximately solving two-player zero-sum concurrent reachability games are value iteration and strategy iteration. We prove upper and lower bounds of 2^(m^(Theta(N))) on the worst case number of iterations…
Motivated by problems in percolation theory, we study the following 2-player positional game. Let $\Lambda_{m \times n}$ be a rectangular grid-graph with $m$ vertices in each row and $n$ vertices in each column. Two players, Maker and…
We define and give results on the game NecklaceNim NN($n$,$k$) which is PathNim PN($n$,$k$) with an additional move allowed on the end vertices. This game arises as a sub-game in the context of solving CircularNim CN($n$,$k$) when $k-2$…
In many combinatorial games, one can prove that the first player wins under best play using a simple but non-constructive argument called strategy-stealing. This work is about the complexity behind these proofs: how hard is it to actually…
In this paper, we address an instance of uniquely solvable mean-field game with a common noise whose corresponding counterpart without common noise has several equilibria. We study the selection problem for this mean-field game without…
A selfmate is a Chess problem in which White, moving first, needs to force Black to checkmate within a specified number of moves. The reflexmate is a derivative of the selfmate in which White compels Black to checkmate with the added…
In this paper, we propose a Quantum variation of combinatorial games, generalizing the Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe proposed by Allan Goff. A combinatorial game is a two-player game with no chance and no hidden information, such as Go or Chess. In…
The nucleolus offers a desirable payoff-sharing solution in cooperative games thanks to its attractive properties - it always exists and lies in the core (if the core is non-empty), and is unique. Although computing the nucleolus is very…
We study parity games in which one of the two players controls only a small number $k$ of nodes and the other player controls the $n-k$ other nodes of the game. Our main result is a fixed-parameter algorithm that solves bipartite parity…