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Game theory is used by all behavioral sciences, but its development has long centered around tools for relatively simple games and toy systems, such as the economic interpretation of equilibrium outcomes. Our contribution, compositional…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-03-13 Seth Frey , Jules Hedges , Joshua Tan , Philipp Zahn

We initiate the study of simple games from the point of view of combinatorial topology. The starting premise is that the losing coalitions of a simple game can be identified with a simplicial complex. Various topological constructions and…

Physics and Society · Physics 2025-03-18 Ismar Volic , Leah Valentiner

We study the applicability of quantum algorithms in computational game theory and generalize some results related to Subtraction games, which are sometimes referred to as one-heap Nim games. In quantum game theory, a subset of Subtraction…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2020-06-15 Dmitry Kravchenko , Kamil Khadiev , Danil Serov , Ruslan Kapralov

We announce misere-play solutions to several previously-unsolved combinatorial games. The solutions are described in terms of misere quotients--commutative monoids that encode the additive structure of specific misere-play games. We also…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2008-06-30 Thane E. Plambeck , Aaron N. Siegel

A combinatorial game is a two-player game without hidden information or chance elements. One of the major approaches to analyzing games in combinatorial game theory is to break down a given game position into a disjunctive sum of multiple…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-11-14 Kengo Hashimoto

Combinatorial Game Theory is a branch of mathematics and theoretical computer science that studies sequential 2-player games with perfect information. Normal play is the convention where a player who cannot move loses. Here, we generalize…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-10-31 Prem Kant , Urban Larsson , Ravi K. Rai , Akshay V. Upasany

In this paper, we consider combinatorial game rulesets based on data structures normally covered in an undergraduate Computer Science Data Structures course: arrays, stacks, queues, priority queues, sets, linked lists, and binary trees. We…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-05-23 Mara Bovee , Kyle Burke , Craig Tennenhouse

In this note, we investigate combinatorial games where both players move randomly (each turn, independently selecting a legal move uniformly at random). In this model, we provide closed-form expressions for the expected number of turns in a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-01-31 Pat Devlin , Paulina Trifonova

This is an introduction into John Conway's beautiful Combinatorial Game Theory, providing precise statements and detailed proofs for the fundamental parts of his theory. (1) Combinatorial game theory, (2) the GROUP of games, (3) the FIELD…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2007-08-21 Dierk Schleicher , Michael Stoll

We study combinatorial games under mis\`ere convention. Several sets of games have been considered earlier to better understand the behaviour of mis\`ere games. We here connect several of these sets. In particular, we prove that comparison…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-05-14 Gabriel Renault

We propose a generalization of positional games, supplementing them with a restriction on the order in which the elements of the board are allowed to be claimed. We introduce poset positional games, which are positional games with an…

In this paper we will discuss scoring play games. We will give the basic definitions for scoring play games, and show that they form a well defined set, with clear and distinct outcome classes under these definitions. We will also show that…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2012-11-08 Fraser Stewart

The study of the combinatorial game Nim and its variants is rich and varied, but little is known of the game Nim with a Pass. It is Nim, but once per game a player is permitted to skip their turn but this can only be done if a nonempty pile…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-10-22 Emet Hirsch

A combinatorial game is a two-player game without hidden information or chance elements. The main object of combinatorial game theory is to obtain the outcome, which player has a winning strategy, of a given combinatorial game. Positions of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-11-27 Kengo Hashimoto

Genetic programming is the practice of evolving formulas using crossover and mutation of genes representing functional operations. Motivated by genetic evolution we develop and solve two combinatorial games, and we demonstrate some…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-02-02 Melissa A. Huggan , Craig Tennenhouse

We research a combinatorial game based on the Cookie Monster problem called the Cookie Monster game that generalizes the games of Nim and Wythoff. We also propose several combinatorial games that are in between the Cookie Monster game and…

History and Overview · Mathematics 2014-07-08 Tanya Khovanova , Joshua Xiong

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…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2018-03-06 Paul Dorbec , Mehdi Mhalla

In 1901, Bouton proved that a winning strategy of the game of Nim is given by the bitwise XOR, called the nim-sum. But, why does such a weird binary operation work? Led by this question, this paper introduces a categorical reinterpretation…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-11-17 Ryuya Hora

Combinatorial Game Theory typically studies sequential rulesets with perfect information where two players alternate moves. There are rulesets with {\em entailing moves} that break the alternating play axiom and/or restrict the other…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-04-04 Urban Larsson , Richard J. Nowakowski , Carlos P. Santos

Combinatorial Game Theory has also been called `additive game theory', whenever the analysis involves sums of independent game components. Such {\em disjunctive sums} invoke comparison between games, which allows abstract values to be…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-01-29 Urban Larsson , Richard J. Nowakowski , Carlos P. Santos