Related papers: Gardner's Minichess Variant is solved
The $m \times n$ king graph consists of all locations on an $m \times n$ chessboard, where edges are legal moves of a chess king. %where each vertex represents a square on a chessboard and each edge is a legal move. Let $P_{m \times n}(z)$…
We have developed a program called MUDoS (Maastricht University Domineering Solver) that solves Domineering positions in a very efficient way. This enables the solution of known positions so far (up to the 10 x 10 board) much quicker…
We introduce a new family of one-player games, involving the movement of coins from one configuration to another. Moves are restricted so that a coin can be placed only in a position that is adjacent to at least two other coins. The goal of…
Given a graph G with n vertices and k players, each of which is placing a facility on one of the vertices of G, we define the score of the i'th player to be the number of vertices for which, among all players, the facility placed by the…
In the chapter "Magic with a Matrix" in \emph{Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions} (1988), Martin Gardner describes a delightful "party trick" to fill the squares of a $d$-by-$d$ chessboard with nonnegative integers such that…
In an investigation of the applications of Combinatorial Game Theory to chess, we construct novel mutual Zugzwang positions, explain an otherwise mysterious pawn endgame from "A Guide to Chess Endings" (Euwe and Hooper), show positions…
We recast move generators for solving board games as operations on compressed sets of strings. We aim for compressed representations with space sublinear in the number of game positions for interesting sets of positions, move generation in…
We generalize Rock Paper Scissors to complete directed graphs, or tournaments, on $n$ vertices. Properties of the mixed-strategy Nash equilibria of these tournaments are discussed, particularly those with Nash equilibria where all of the…
We analyze the structure of the state space of chess by means of transition path sampling Monte Carlo simulation. Based on the typical number of moves required to transpose a given configuration of chess pieces into another, we conclude…
It is non-trivial to design engaging and balanced sets of game rules. Modern chess has evolved over centuries, but without a similar recourse to history, the consequences of rule changes to game dynamics are difficult to predict. AlphaZero…
We revisit the classic 'guess my number' game and extend it from its familiar binary form to representations in any integer base. For each base we derive formulas for the number of cards needed to identify a given integer and, conversely,…
At some places (see the references) Martin Erickson describes a certain game: "Two players alternately write O's (first player) and X's (second player) in the unoccupied cells of an n x n grid. The first player (if any) to occupy four cells…
Automatic chess problem or puzzle composition typically involves generating and testing various different positions, sometimes using particular piece sets. Once a position has been generated, it is then usually tested for positional…
We study the m-Eternal Domination problem, which is the following two-player game between a defender and an attacker on a graph: initially, the defender positions k guards on vertices of the graph; the game then proceeds in turns between…
Fog of War chess is a popular variant of classical chess, in which both players have only partial information about the position of the opponent's pieces. This study provides the first theoretical analysis of endgames in Fog of War chess.…
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…
Determining the state-space complexity of the game of Shogi (Japanese Chess) has been a challenging problem, with previous combinatorial estimates leaving a gap of five orders of magnitude ($10^{64}$ to $10^{69}$). This large gap arises…
This paper provides a complexity analysis for the game of reconnaissance blind chess (RBC), a recently-introduced variant of chess where each player does not know the positions of the opponent's pieces a priori but may reveal a subset of…
We study the positional game where two players, Maker and Breaker, alternately select respectively $1$ and $b$ previously unclaimed edges of $K_n$. Maker wins if she succeeds in claiming all edges of some odd cycle in $K_n$ and Breaker wins…
We propose a new kind of sliding-block puzzle, called Gourds, where the objective is to rearrange 1 x 2 pieces on a hexagonal grid board of 2n + 1 cells with n pieces, using sliding, turning and pivoting moves. This puzzle has a single…