English

On Zermelo's theorem

Combinatorics 2016-10-25 v1

Abstract

A famous result in game theory known as Zermelo's theorem says that "in chess either White can force a win, or Black can force a win, or both sides can force at least a draw". The present paper extends this result to the class of all finite-stage two-player games of complete information with alternating moves. It is shown that in any such game either the first player has a winning strategy, or the second player has a winning strategy, or both have unbeatable strategies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1610.07160,
  title  = {On Zermelo's theorem},
  author = {Rabah Amir and Igor V. Evstigneev},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1610.07160},
  year   = {2016}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T16:28:48.281Z