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We study biased Maker-Breaker positional games between two players, one of whom is playing randomly against an opponent with an optimal strategy. In this work we focus on the case of Breaker playing randomly and Maker being "clever". The…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-04-01 Jonas Groschwitz , Tibor Szabó

We study the biased $(1:b)$ Maker--Breaker positional games, played on the edge set of the complete graph on $n$ vertices, $K_n$. Given Breaker's bias $b$, possibly depending on $n$, we determine the bounds for the minimal number of moves,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-06-22 Mirjana Mikalački , Miloš Stojaković

We consider playing the game of Tic-Tac-Toe on block designs BIBD($v, k, \lambda$) and transversal designs TD($k, n$). Players take turns choosing points and the first player to complete a block wins the game. We show that triple systems,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-02-20 Peter Danziger , Melissa A. Huggan , Rehan Malik , Trent G. Marbach

In the $(a,b)$-biased Maker-Breaker domination game, two players alternately select unplayed vertices in a graph $G$ such that Dominator selects $a$ and Staller selects $b$ vertices per move. Dominator wins if the vertices he selected…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-29 Boštjan Brešar , Csilla Bujtás , Pakanun Dokyeesun , Tanja Dravec

The Maker-Breaker domination game (MBD game) is a two-player game played on a graph $G$ by Dominator and Staller. They alternately select unplayed vertices of $G$. The goal of Dominator is to form a dominating set with the set of vertices…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-12-10 Athira Divakaran , Tanja Dravec , Tijo James , Sandi Klavžar , Latha S Nair

The Maker-Breaker connectivity game and Hamilton cycle game belong to the best studied games in positional games theory, including results on biased games, games on random graphs and fast winning strategies. Recently, the Connector-Breaker…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-06-02 Dennis Clemens , Pranshu Gupta , Yannick Mogge

We introduce and analyze the Walker-Breaker game, a variant of Maker-Breaker games where Maker is constrained to choose edges of a walk or path in a given graph G, with the goal of visiting as many vertices of the underlying graph as…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-05-08 Lisa Espig , Alan Frieze , Wesley Pegden , Michael Krivelevich

The Maker-Breaker total domination number, $\gamma_{\rm MBT}(G)$, of a graph $G$ is introduced as the minimum number of moves of Dominator to win the Maker-Breaker total domination game, provided that he has a winning strategy and is the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-07-24 Athira Divakaran , Tijo James , Sandi Klavžar , Latha S Nair

We study two positional games played on hypergraphs, whose edges may be interpreted as winning sets. Two players take turns picking a previously unpicked vertex of the hypergraph. We say a player fills an edge if that player has picked all…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2026-04-14 Florian Galliot

Maker-Breaker total domination game in graphs is introduced as a natural counterpart to the Maker-Breaker domination game recently studied by Duch\^ene, Gledel, Parreau, and Renault. Both games are instances of the combinatorial…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-02-04 Valentin Gledel , Michael A. Henning , Vesna Iršič , Sandi Klavžar

Consider the following game played by Maker and Breaker on the vertices of the cycle $C_{n}$, with first move given to Breaker. The aim of Maker is to maximise the number of adjacent pairs of vertices that are both claimed by her, and the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-07-26 Eero Raty

In this paper we study the (a : b) Maker-Breaker Connectivity game, played on the edge-set of the complete graph on n vertices. We determine the winner for almost all values of a and b.

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-08-14 Dan Hefetz , Mirjana Rakić , Miloš Stojaković

We study Maker/Breaker games on the edges of sparse graphs. Maker and Breaker take turns in claiming previously unclaimed edges of a given graph H. Maker aims to occupy a given target graph G and Breaker tries to prevent Maker from…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2011-06-17 Heidi Gebauer

We initiate the study of a new variant of the Maker-Breaker positional game, which we call multistage game. Given a hypergraph $\mathcal{H}=(\mathcal{X},\mathcal{F})$ and a bias $b \ge 1$, the $(1:b)$ multistage Maker-Breaker game on…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-04-25 Juri Barkey , Dennis Clemens , Fabian Hamann , Mirjana Mikalački , Amedeo Sgueglia

We introduce variants of the Maker-Breaker and Waiter-Client games, which we call \emph{stotting}, in which a player grants a slight advantage to the opponent. We prove that a winning strategy in either stotting variant yields winning…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-05-29 Johannes Carmesin , Yannick Mogge

Let $(X, \mathcal{F})$ be a hypergraph. The Maker-Breaker game on $(X, \mathcal{F})$ is a combinatorial game between two players, Maker and Breaker. Beginning with Maker, the players take turns claiming vertices from $X$ that have not yet…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2025-02-28 Finn Orson Koepke

This paper considers a game version of the general position problem in which a general position set is built through adversarial play. Two players in a graph, Builder and Blocker, take it in turns to add a vertex to a set, such that the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-07-03 Sandi Klavžar , Jing Tian , James Tuite

We study the biased $(2:b)$ Walker--Breaker games, played on the edge set of the complete graph on $n$ vertices, $K_n$. These games are a variant of the Maker--Breaker games with the restriction that Walker (playing the role of Maker) has…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-06-22 Jovana Forcan , Mirjana Mikalački

We show that there is an $m=2n+o(n)$, such that, in the Maker-Breaker game played on $\Z^d$ where Maker needs to put at least $m$ of his marks consecutively in one of $n$ given winning directions, Breaker can force a draw using a pairing…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2010-06-01 Padmini Mukkamala , Dömötör Pálvölgyi

We introduce a general framework for positional games in which players score points by claiming a prescribed portion of each winning set, extending the notion of scoring Maker-Breaker games. In the scoring variant, Maker gains a point by…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2026-03-06 Eric Duchêne , Valentin Gledel , Miloš Stojaković