Related papers: Absolute Combinatorial Game Theory

For a collection of papers in memory of Elwyn Berlekamp (1940-2019), John Conway (1937-2020), and Richard Guy (1916-2020). The Sprague-Grundy theory for finite games without cycles was extended to general finite games by Cedric Smith and by…

Goedel's completeness theorem is concerned with provability, while Girard's theorem in ludics (as well as full completeness theorems in game semantics) are concerned with proofs. Our purpose is to look for a connection between these two…

This paper concerns two-player alternating play combinatorial games (Conway 1976) in the normal-play convention, i.e. last move wins. Specifically, we study impartial vector subtraction games on tuples of nonnegative integers (Golomb 1966),…

The security game is a basic model for resource allocation in adversarial environments. Here there are two players, a defender and an attacker. The defender wants to allocate her limited resources to defend critical targets and the attacker…

A binary constraint system game is a two-player one-round non-local game defined by a system of Boolean constraints. The game has a perfect quantum strategy if and only if the constraint system has a quantum satisfying assignment [R. Cleve…

Given a family of graphs $\mathcal{F}$, we consider the $\mathcal{F}$-saturation game. In this game two players alternate adding edges to an initially empty graph on $n$ vertices, with the only constraint being that neither player can add…

Due to their complex dynamics, combinatorial games are a key test case and application for algorithms that train game playing agents. Among those algorithms that train using self-play are coevolutionary algorithms (CoEAs). However, the…

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…

This paper considers the problem of solving infinite two-player games over finite graphs under various classes of progress assumptions motivated by applications in cyber-physical system (CPS) design. Formally, we consider a game graph G, a…

Matching games is a one-to-one two sided market model introduced by Garrido-Lucero and Laraki, in which coupled agents' utilities are endogenously determined as the outcome of a strategic game. They refine the classical pairwise stability…

In mean-payoff games, the objective of the protagonist is to ensure that the limit average of an infinite sequence of numeric weights is nonnegative. In energy games, the objective is to ensure that the running sum of weights is always…

There are many combinatorial games in which a move can terminate the game, such as a checkmate in chess. These moves give rise to diverse situations that fall outside the scope of the classical normal play structure. To analyze these games,…

Hyperproperties generalize traditional trace properties by relating multiple execution traces rather than reasoning about individual runs in isolation. They provide a unified way to express important requirements such as information flow…

We define an all-small ruleset, Bipass, within the framework of normal-play combinatorial games. A game is played on finite strips of black and white stones. Stones of different colors are swapped provided they do not bypass one of their…

LP-duality theory has played a central role in the study of the core, right from its early days to the present time. However, despite the extensive nature of this work, basic gaps still remain. We address these gaps using the following…

A notion of incentive for agents is introduced which leads to a very general notion of an equilibrium for a finite game. Sufficient conditions for the existence of these equilibria are given. Known existence theorems are shown to be…

We study two-player games with alternating moves played on infinite trees. Our main focus is on the case where the trees are full (regular) and the winning set is open (with respect to the product topology on the tree). Gale and Stewart…

Recently, a standardized framework was proposed for introducing quantum-inspired moves in mathematical games with perfect information and no chance. The beauty of quantum games-succinct in representation, rich in structures, explosive in…

A theory is universal contextual if its prediction cannot be reproduced by an ontological model satisfying both preparation and measurement noncontextuality assumptions. In this report, we first generalize the logical proofs of quantum…

We consider N-player and mean field games in continuous time over a finite horizon, where the position of each agent belongs to {-1,1}. If there is uniqueness of mean field game solutions, e.g. under monotonicity assumptions, then the…