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A class of discrete Bidding Combinatorial Games that generalize alternating normal play was introduced by Kant, Larsson, Rai, and Upasany (2022). The major questions concerning optimal outcomes were resolved. By generalizing standard game…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-10-31 Prem Kant , Urban Larsson , Ravi K. Rai , Akshay V. Upasany

We encode arbitrary finite impartial combinatorial games in terms of lattice points in rational convex polyhedra. Encodings provided by these \emph{lattice games} can be made particularly efficient for octal games, which we generalize to…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2009-08-25 Alan Guo , Ezra Miller

This article concerns the resolution of impartial combinatorial games, and in particular games that can be split in sums of independent positions. We prove that in order to compute the outcome of a sum of independent positions, it is always…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2010-11-29 Julien Lemoine , Simon Viennot

Arithmetic functions in Number Theory meet the Sprague-Grundy function from Combinatorial Game Theory. We study a variety of 2-player games induced by standard arithmetic functions, such as Euclidian division, divisors, remainders and…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2021-07-06 Douglas E. Iannucci , Urban Larsson

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…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2019-03-05 Mark Spindler

Two players alternate moves in the following impartial combinatorial game: Given a finitely generated abelian group $A$, a move consists of picking some nonzero element $a \in A$. The game then continues with the quotient group $A/ \langle…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-01-29 Martin Brandenburg

Compositional Game Theory is a new, recently introduced model of economic games based upon the computer science idea of compositionality. In it, complex and irregular games can be built up from smaller and simpler games, and the equilibria…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-11-22 Neil Ghani , Clemens Kupke , Alasdair Lambert , Fredrik Nordvall Forsberg

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…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-08-03 Richard Adams , Janae Dixon , Jennifer Elder , Jamie Peabody , Oscar Vega , Karen Willis

Subtraction games are a class of impartial combinatorial games whose positions correspond to nonnegative integers and whose moves correspond to subtracting one of a fixed set of numbers from the current position. Though they are easy to…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-07-11 Nathan Fox

We provide a winning strategy for sums of games of MARK-t, an impartial game played on the nonnegative integers where each move consists of subtraction by an integer between 1 and t-1 inclusive, or division by t, rounding down when…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2011-08-10 Alan Guo

We initiate the study of simple games from the point of view of combinatorial topology. The starting premise is that the losing coalitions of a simple game can be identified with a simplicial complex. Various topological constructions and…

Physics and Society · Physics 2025-03-18 Ismar Volic , Leah Valentiner

We apply the Sprague-Grundy Theorem to LCTR, a new impartial game on partitions in which players take turns removing either the Left Column or the Top Row of the corresponding Young diagram. We establish that the Sprague-Grundy value of any…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2023-08-16 Eric Gottlieb , Jelena Ilić , Matjaž Krnc

In this paper, we study impartial achievement games and impartial avoidance games introduced by Anderson and Harary. Using the criteria of maximal subgroups, we study the game for Frobenius groups and non-abelian groups with all abelian…

Group Theory · Mathematics 2026-05-26 Ratan Lal , Muskan , Vipul Kakkar

In this paper we will be examining impartial scoring play games. We first give the basic definitions for what impartial scoring play games are and look at their general structure under the disjunctive sum. We will then examine the game of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2012-08-07 Fraser Stewart

Relying on recent generalizations of the Fra\"iss\'e theory to a broader category-theoretic context, we study the class of abstract finite games played between two players and show the existence of an infinitetly countable game which is…

General Mathematics · Mathematics 2025-11-18 Matheus Duzi , Paul Szeptycki , Walter Tholen

In this paper, we will be proving mathematically that scoring play combinatorial game theory covers all combinatorial games. That is, there is a sub-set of scoring play games that are identical to the set of normal play games, and a…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2013-03-19 Fraser Stewart

We consider the abstract structure of the monoid M of mis\`ere impartial game values. Several new results are presented, including a proof that the group of fractions of M is almost torsion-free; a method of calculating the number of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2021-09-06 Aaron N. Siegel

We study two impartial games introduced by Anderson and Harary and further developed by Barnes. Both games are played by two players who alternately select previously unselected elements of a finite group. The first player who builds a…

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

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,…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-02-09 Urban Larsson , Richard J. Nowakowski , Carlos P. Santos

Subtraction games have a rich literature as normal-play combinatorial games (e.g., Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy, 1982). Recently, the theory has been extended to zero-sum scoring play (Cohensius et al. 2019). Here, we take the approach of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-01-22 Anjali Bhagat , Tanmay Kulkarni , Urban Larsson , Divya Murali