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We introduce Shortest Connection Game, a two-player game played on a directed graph with edge costs. Given two designated vertices in which they start, the players take turns in choosing edges emanating from the vertex they are currently…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-11-26 Andreas Darmann , Ulrich Pferschy , Joachim Schauer

This paper considers a natural ruleset for playing a partisan combinatorial game on a directed graph, which we call Digraph Placement. Given a digraph $G$ with a not necessarily proper $2$-coloring of $V(G)$, the Digraph Placement game…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-04-15 Alexander Clow , Neil A McKay

The domination game is played on a graph $G$ by two players, named Dominator and Staller. They alternatively select vertices of $G$ such that each chosen vertex enlarges the set of vertices dominated before the move on it. Dominator's goal…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2013-07-23 Boštjan Brešar , Paul Dorbec , Sandi Klavžar , Gašper Košmrlj

We consider zero-sum games in which players move between adjacent states, where in each pair of adjacent states one state dominates the other. The states in our game can represent positional advantages in physical conflict such as high…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-07-11 Farid Arthaud , Edan Orzech , Martin Rinard

In this paper we study a variant of the solitaire game Lights-Out, where the player's goal is to turn off a grid of lights. This variant is a two-player impartial game where the goal is to make the final valid move. This version is playable…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-11-14 Eugene Fiorini , Maxwell Fogler , Katherine Levandosky , Bryan Lu , Jacob Porter , Andrew Woldar

In this paper, we consider two-player impartial games with a pass-move. A disjunctive compound of games is a position in which, on each turn, the current player chooses one of the components and makes a legal move in it. For disjunctive…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-11-11 Hikaru Manabe , Ryohei Miyadera , Koki Suetsugu

We consider the following combinatorial two-player game: On the random tree arising from a branching process, each round one player (Breaker) deletes an edge and by that removes the descendant and all its progeny, while the other (Maker)…

Probability · Mathematics 2024-12-17 Timo Vilkas

The numbers game is a one-player game played on a finite simple graph with certain "amplitudes" assigned to its edges and with an initial assignment of real numbers to its nodes. The moves of the game successively transform the numbers at…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2008-10-31 Robert G. Donnelly

Using a notation of corner between edges when graph has a fixed rotation, i.e. cyclical order of edges around vertices, we define combinatorial objects - combinatorial maps as pairs of permutations, one for vertices and one for faces.…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2009-09-02 Dainis Zeps

We examine short combinatorial games for three or more players under a new play convention in which a player who cannot move on their turn is the unique loser. We show that many theorems of impartial and partizan two-player games under…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-03-05 Mark Spindler

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 introduce and study pawn games, a class of two-player zero-sum turn-based graph games. A turn-based graph game proceeds by placing a token on an initial vertex, and whoever controls the vertex on which the token is located, chooses its…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-04-09 Guy Avni , Pranav Ghorpade , Shibashis Guha

Subset take-away is a two-player game involving a fixed finite set A. Players alternate choosing a proper, non-empty subset of A, with the condition that one may not name a set containing a set that was named earlier. A player unable to…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-05-05 J. Daniel Christensen , Mark Tilford

The isolation game is played on a graph $G$ by two players who take turns playing a vertex such that if $X$ is the set of already played vertices, then a vertex can be selected only if it dominates a vertex from a nontrivial component of $G…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-04-02 Csilla Bujtás , Tanja Dravec , Michael A. Henning , Sandi Klavžar

Euclid is a well known two-player impartial combinatorial game. A position in Euclid is a pair of positive integers and the players move alternately by subtracting a positive integer multiple of one of the integers from the other integer…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2012-02-22 Grant Cairns , Nhan Bao Ho

In the graph avoidance game two players alternatingly color edges of a graph G in red and in blue respectively. The player who first creates a monochromatic subgraph isomorphic to a forbidden graph F loses. A symmetric strategy of the…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2007-05-23 Frank Harary , Wolfgang Slany , Oleg Verbitsky

Arc-Kayles is a game where two players alternate removing two adjacent vertices until no move is left, the winner being the player who played the last move. Introduced in 1978, its computational complexity is still open. More recently,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-11-24 Kyle Burke , Antoine Dailly , Nacim Oijid

Node-Kayles is a well-known impartial combinatorial game played on graphs, where players alternately select a vertex and remove it along with its neighbors. By the Sprague-Grundy theorem, every position of an impartial game corresponds to a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-01-01 Nuttanon Songsuwan

The connected domination game is played just as the domination game, with an additional requirement that at each stage of the game the vertices played induce a connected subgraph. The number of moves in a D-game (an S-game, resp.) on a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-12-21 Csilla Bujtás , Vesna Iršič , Sandi Klavžar

Two players play a game by alternately splitting a surface of a compact $2$-manifold along a simple closed curve that is not null-homotopic and attaching disks to the resulting boundary; the last player who can move wins. Starting from an…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-09-04 David R. Berman , Lee O. Leonard