Related papers: When Rooks Miss: Probability through Chess
Automatic chess problem or puzzle composition typically involves generating and testing various different positions, sometimes using particular piece sets. Once a position has been generated, it is then usually tested for positional…
We prove two basic conjectures on the distribution of the smallest singular value of random n times n matrices with independent entries. Under minimal moment assumptions, we show that the smallest singular value is of order n^{-1/2}, which…
The Stirling approximation formula for $n!$ dates from 1730. Here we give new and instructive proofs of this and related approximation formulae via tools of probability and statistics. There are connections to the Central Limit Theorem and…
In a recent paper [1], it has been claimed that the outcomes of a quantum coin toss which is idealized as an infinite binary sequence is 1-random. We also defend the correctness of this claim and assert that the outcomes of quantum…
We study a higher-dimensional 'balls-into-bins' problem. An infinite sequence of i.i.d. random vectors is revealed to us one vector at a time, and we are required to partition these vectors into a fixed number of bins in such a way as to…
We propose a neural network-based approach to calculate the value of a chess square-piece combination. Our model takes a triplet (Color, Piece, Square) as an input and calculates a value that measures the advantage/disadvantage of having…
We present a game inspired by research on the possible number of billiard ball collisions in the whole Euclidean space. One player tries to place $n$ static "balls" with zero radius (i.e., points) in a way that will minimize the total…
We introduce the problem of ranking with slot constraints, which can be used to model a wide range of application problems -- from college admission with limited slots for different majors, to composing a stratified cohort of eligible…
During last years poker has gained a lot of prestige in several countries and, beyond to be one of the most famous card games, it represents a modern challenge for scientists belonging to different communities, spanning from artificial…
We consider various probabilistic games with piles for one player or two players. In each round of the game, a player randomly chooses to add $a$ or $b$ chips to his pile under the condition that $a$ and $b$ are not necessarily positive. If…
The last success problem is an optimal stopping problem that aims to maximize the probability of stopping on the last success in a sequence of independent $n$ Bernoulli trials. In the classical setting where complete information about the…
The basic random $k$-SAT problem is: Given a set of $n$ Boolean variables, and $m$ clauses of size $k$ picked uniformly at random from the set of all such clauses on our variables, is the conjunction of these clauses satisfiable? Here we…
Simple stochastic games are turn-based 2.5-player games with a reachability objective. The basic question asks whether one player can ensure reaching a given target with at least a given probability. A natural extension is games with a…
Cops and robbers is a pursuit-evasion game played on graphs. We completely classify the cop numbers for $n \times n$ knight graphs and queen graphs. This completes the classification of the cop numbers for all $n \times n$ classical chess…
To count the number of maximum independent arrangements of $n^2$ kings on a $2n\times 2n$ chessboard, we build a $2^n \times (n+1)$ matrix whose entries are independent arrangements of $n$ kings on $2\times 2n$ rectangles. Utilizing upper…
In a well-shuffled deck of cards, what is the probability that somewhere in the deck there are adjacent cards of the same rank? What is the average number of adjacent matches? What is the probability distribution for the number of matches?…
Moves in chess games are usually analyzed on a case-by-case basis by professional players, but thanks to the availability of large game databases, we can envision another approach of the game. Here, we indeed adopt a very different point of…
In the classical probability in continuous random variables there is no distinguishing between the probability involving strict inequality and non strict inequality. Moreover a probability involves equality collapse to zero without…
We analyse the computational complexity of finding Nash equilibria in turn-based stochastic multiplayer games with omega-regular objectives. We show that restricting the search space to equilibria whose payoffs fall into a certain interval…
Balanced knockout tournaments are ubiquitous in sports competitions and are also used in decision-making and elections. The traditional computational question, that asks to compute a draw (optimal draw) that maximizes the winning…