Related papers: A Conjecture about Periods in Subtraction Games

Linial and Morgenstern conjectured that, among all $n$-vertex tournaments with $d\binom{n}{3}$ cycles of length three, the number of cycles of length four is asymptotically minimized by a random blow-up of a transitive tournament with all…

Can an absorbing game with rational data have an irrational limit value? Yes: In this note we provide the simplest examples where this phenomenon arises. That is, the following $3\times 3$ absorbing game \[ A = \begin{bmatrix} 1^* & 1^* &…

We study a variant of 3-pile Nim in which a move consists of taking tokens from one pile and, instead of removing then, topping up on a smaller pile provided that the destination pile does not have more tokens then the source pile after the…

We recast move generators for solving board games as operations on compressed sets of strings. We aim for compressed representations with space sublinear in the number of game positions for interesting sets of positions, move generation in…

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…

We formulate a conjecture from graph theory that is equivalent to Nash-solvability of the finite two-person shortest path games with positive local costs. For the three-person games such conjecture fails.

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…

We analyze a two-player game in which players take turns avoiding the selection of certain points within a convex geometry. The objective is to prevent the convex closure of all chosen points from encompassing a predefined set. The first…

Nim is a well-known combinatorial game in which two players alternately remove stones from distinct piles. A player who removes the last stone wins under the normal play rule, while a player loses under the mis\`ere play rule. In this…

Poset games have been the object of mathematical study for over a century, but little has been written on the computational complexity of determining important properties of these games. In this introduction we develop the fundamentals of…

Given a finite set of positive integers, $A$, and starting with a heap of $n$ chips, Alice and Bob alternate turns and on each turn a player chooses $x\in A$ with $x$ smaller or equal than the current number of chips and subtract $x$ chips…

We investigate a variety of cut and choose games, their relationship with (generic) large cardinals, and show that they can be used to characterize a number of properties of ideals and of partial orders: certain notions of distributivity,…

We define a two-player combinatorial game in which players take alternate turns; each turn consists on deleting a vertex of a graph, together with all the edges containing such vertex. If any vertex became isolated by a player's move then…

We consider zero sum stochastic games. For every discount factor $\lambda$, a time normalization allows to represent the game as being played on the interval [0, 1]. We introduce the trajectories of cumulated expected payoff and of…

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…

In this paper, we address a natural question at the intersection of combinatorial game theory and computational complexity: "Can a sum of simple tepid games in canonical form be intractable?" To resolve this fundamental question, we…

We consider Subtraction Nim, where two players have exactly the same options, but which is partizan in the sense that at the game ending, a partizan rule is applied for the decision of the winner. We consider the following example: Let $S$…

The ordinary game of Nim has a long history and is well-known in the area of combinatorial game theory. The solution to the ordinary game of Nim has been known for many years and lends itself to numerous other solutions to combinatorial…

The deduction game is a variation of the game of cops and robber on graphs in which searchers must capture an invisible evader in at most one move. Searchers know each others' initial locations, but can only communicate if they are on the…

We propose an interpretation of the infinite sum of combinatorial games. In such an interpretation, plays involve infinite runs, but without loops. The notion of a run is quite natural, but different possibilities arises for the notion of…