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We consider a game played on an initially empty graph where two players alternate drawing an edge between vertices subject to the condition that no degree can exceed $k$. We show that for $k=3$, either player can avoid a Hamilton cycle, and…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-12-02 Jeremy Meza , Samuel Simon

We study the following game version of the generalized graph Tur\'an problem. For two fixed graphs $F$ and $H$, two players, Constructor and Blocker, alternately claim unclaimed edges of the complete graph $K_n$. Constructor can only claim…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-10-04 Balázs Patkós , Miloš Stojaković , Máté Vizer

We study a variant of the classical cop-robber game played on compact metric graphs, where each edge is assigned a positive length and identified with a real interval of corresponding length. In this setting, both the cop and the robber…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-12-23 Daniel Berend , Michael D. Boshernitzan

We consider a variation on Maker-Breaker games on graphs or digraphs where the edges have random costs. We assume that Maker wishes to choose the edges of a spanning tree, but wishes to minimise his cost. Meanwhile Breaker wants to make…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-11-21 Patrick Bennett , Alan Frieze

Consider the following probabilistic one-player game: The board is a graph with $n$ vertices, which initially contains no edges. In each step, a new edge is drawn uniformly at random from all non-edges and is presented to the player,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2009-11-20 Michael Belfrage , Torsten Mütze , Reto Spöhel

Let $G$ be a complete convex geometric graph whose vertex set $P$ forms a convex polygon $C$, and let $F$ be a family of subgraphs of $G$. A blocker for $F$ is a set of edges, of smallest possible size, that contains a common edge with…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2018-01-03 Chaya Keller , Yael Stein

We consider two-player games played on finite colored graphs where the goal is the construction of an infinite path with one of the following frequency-related properties: (i) all colors occur with the same asymptotic frequency, (ii) there…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2010-06-29 Alessandro Bianco , Marco Faella , Fabio Mogavero , Aniello Murano

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

The semi-random graph process is a single player game in which the player is initially presented an empty graph on $n$ vertices. In each round, a vertex $u$ is presented to the player independently and uniformly at random. The player then…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2022-09-07 Pu Gao , Calum MacRury , Pawel Pralat

Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe is a variant of the popular Tic-Tac-Toe game. Two players compete to win three aligned "fields," with each field constituting its own miniature tic-tac-toe game. Each move determines which field the next player must…

History and Overview · Mathematics 2023-06-09 Justin Diamond

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

We study so-called invariant games played with a fixed number $d$ of heaps of matches. A game is described by a finite list $\mathcal{M}$ of integer vectors of length $d$ specifying the legal moves. A move consists in changing the current…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2012-02-06 Urban Larsson , Johan Wästlund

We consider a two-player game in which the first player (the Guesser) tries to guess, edge-by-edge, the path that second player (the Chooser) takes through a directed graph. At each step, the Guesser makes a wager as to the correctness of…

Probability · Mathematics 2009-07-14 Marcus Pendergrass

We study the Maker-Breaker domination game played by Dominator and Staller on the vertex set of a given graph. Dominator wins when the vertices he has claimed form a dominating set of the graph. Staller wins if she makes it impossible for…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-04-17 Jovana Forcan , Jiayue Qi

We consider random-turn positional games, introduced by Peres, Schramm, Sheffield and Wilson in 2007. A $p$-random-turn positional game is a two-player game, played the same as an ordinary positional game, except that instead of alternating…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-08-26 Asaf Ferber , Michael Krivelevich , Gal Kronenberg

Consider the following one-player game played on an initially empty graph with $n$ vertices. At each stage a randomly selected new edge is added and the player must immediately color the edge with one of $r$ available colors. Her objective…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-03-25 Andreas Noever

Fast exact algorithms are known for Hamiltonian paths in undirected and directed bipartite graphs through elegant though involved algorithms that are quite different from each other. We devise algorithms that are simple and similar to each…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-12-10 V. Arvind , Srijan Chakraborty , Samir Datta , Asif Khan

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

The draw of some knockout tournaments requires finding a perfect matching in a balanced bipartite graph. The problem becomes challenging with draw constraints: the two draw procedures used in sports are known to be non-uniformly distributed…

Physics and Society · Physics 2025-04-17 László Csató

The graph grabbing game is played on a non-negatively weighted connected graph by Alice and Bob who alternately claim a non-cut vertex from the remaining graph, where Alice plays first, to maximize the weights on their respective claimed…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-07-24 Sopon Boriboon , Teeradej Kittipassorn