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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

Combinatorial Game Theory has also been called `additive game theory', whenever the analysis involves sums of independent game components. Such {\em disjunctive sums} invoke comparison between games, which allows abstract values to be…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-01-29 Urban Larsson , Richard J. Nowakowski , Carlos P. Santos

We present the notion of separable game with respect to a forward directed hypergraph (FDH-graph), which refines and generalizes that of graphical game. First, we show that there exists a minimal FDH-graph with respect to which a game is…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-12-15 Laura Arditti , Giacomo Como , Fabio Fagnani

Let G=(V,E) be a connected graph. A set U subseteq V is convex if G[U] is connected and all vertices of V\U have at most one neighbor in U. Let sigma(W) denote the unique smallest convex set that contains W subseteq V. Two players play the…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-10-25 Wing-Kai Hon , Ton Kloks , Fu-Hong Liu , Hsiang-Hsuan Liu , Tao-Ming Wang , Yue-Li Wang

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

This paper considers a class of two-player zero-sum games on directed graphs whose vertices are equipped with random payoffs of bounded support known by both players. Starting from a fixed vertex, players take turns to move a token along…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-01-30 Luc Attia , Lyuben Lichev , Dieter Mitsche , Raimundo Saona , Bruno Ziliotto

We study a two-player game on a graph between an attacker and a defender. To begin with, the defender places guards on a subset of vertices. In each move, the attacker attacks an edge. The defender must move at least one guard across the…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2023-08-10 Neeldhara Misra , Saraswati Girish Nanoti

Positional games have been introduced by Hales and Jewett in 1963 and have been extensively investigated in the literature since then. These games are played on a hypergraph where two players alternately select an unclaimed vertex of it. In…

We consider games played on finite graphs, whose goal is to obtain a trace belonging to a given set of winning traces. We focus on those states from which Player 1 cannot force a win. We explore and compare several criteria for establishing…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2008-11-12 Marco Faella

We study an impartial avoidance game introduced by Anderson and Harary. The game is played by two players who alternately select previously unselected elements of a finite group. The first player who cannot select an element without making…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-02-12 Bret J. Benesh , Dana C. Ernst , Nandor Sieben

Octal games are a well-defined family of two-player games played on heaps of counters, in which the players remove alternately a certain number of counters from a heap, sometimes being allowed to split a heap into two nonempty heaps, until…

Let $k\geq 2$ and fix a $k$-uniform hypergraph $\mathcal{F}$. Consider the random process that, starting from a $k$-uniform hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$ on $n$ vertices, repeatedly deletes the edges of a copy of $\mathcal{F}$ chosen uniformly…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-08-05 Felix Joos , Marcus Kühn

For two graphs $B$ and $H$ the strong Ramsey game $\mathcal{R}(B,H)$ on the board $B$ and with target $H$ is played as follows. Two players alternately claim edges of $B$. The first player to build a copy of $H$ wins. If none of the players…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-03-11 Stefan David , Ivailo Hartarsky , Marius Tiba

We introduce and analyze the Walker-Breaker game, a variant of Maker-Breaker games where Maker is constrained to choose edges of a walk or path in a given graph G, with the goal of visiting as many vertices of the underlying graph as…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-05-08 Lisa Espig , Alan Frieze , Wesley Pegden , Michael Krivelevich

A positional game is a game where two players sequentially label vertices of a hypergraph, consisting of a board and a collection of winning sets, with colors assigned to each player until all vertices of the board are claimed. The first…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-09-02 Pranav Avadhanam , Siddhartha G. Jena

We introduce a model involving two adversaries Buster and Fixer taking turns modifying a connected graph, where each round consists of Buster deleting a subset of edges and Fixer responding by adding edges from a finite reserve set of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-03-31 Daniel C. McDonald

The game Arc-Kayles is played on an undirected graph with two players taking turns deleting an edge and its endpoints from the graph. We study a generalization of this game, Weighted Arc Kayles (WAK for short), played on graphs with…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-04-17 Antoine Dailly , Valentin Gledel , Marc Heinrich

In classical Maker-Breaker games on graphs, Maker and Breaker take turns claiming edges; Maker's goal is to claim all of some structure (e.g., a spanning tree, Hamilton cycle, etc.), while Breaker aims to stop her. The standard question…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-05-28 Wesley Pegden , Francesca Yu

We introduce a new combinatorial game, named Triangle Game. In this game, a directed $3$-cycle graph is given, and tokens are placed on each vertex. The player chooses an edge and takes at least one token from the initial vertex. At the…

Eternal vertex cover is the following two-player game between a defender and an attacker on a graph. Initially, the defender positions k guards on k vertices of the graph; the game then proceeds in turns between the defender and the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-04-08 Tiziana Calamoneri , Federico Corò , Giacomo Paesani