Outline for today

Stat155
Game Theory
Lecture 2: Combinatorial Games

Combinatorial games:
Positions, moves, terminal positions, impartial/partisan, progressively
bounded, directed graphs.
Progressively bounded impartial games.
The sets N and P.
Theorem: Someone can win.

Peter Bartlett

Examples
Subtraction
Chomp

August 30, 2016

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Example: Subtraction Game

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Example: Subtraction Game

15 chips
Two players: I and II.

Does Player I have an advantage from having the first move?

Players alternate moves; Player I starts.

If both players play optimally, who will win?

At each move, the player can remove 1 or 2 chips.

What is an optimal strategy?

A player wins when they take the last chip

(so that the other player cannot move).

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Example: Subtraction Game

Example: Subtraction Game

Let x be the number of chips remaining.

Suppose you move next.
Can you guarantee a win?

Write N as the set of positions where the Next player to move can
guarantee a win, provided that they play optimally.
Write P as the set of positions where the other playerthe player that
moved Previouslycan guarantee a win, provided that they play optimally.

For x = 0?

0 P.

For x {1, 2}?

1, 2 N.

For x = 3?

3 P.

For x = 4?

4, 5 N.

For x = 5?

6 P.

For x = 6?

7, 8 N.

For x {7, 8}?

15 P.

For x = 15?

Player II can always win.

What is Player IIs optimal strategy?
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Definitions: Combinatorial games

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Definitions: Combinatorial games

A combinatorial game has:

Two players, Player I and Player II.
A set of positions X .
For each player, a set of legal moves between positions, that is, a set
of ordered pairs, (current position, next position):
MI , MII X X .

Terminology:
An impartial game has the same set of legal moves for both players:
MI = MII .
A partisan game has different sets of legal moves for the players.
A terminal position for a player has no legal move to another position.
x is terminal for player I if there is no y X with (x, y ) MI .

Players alternately choose moves; Player I goes first from some

starting position x0 X .
Play continues until some player cannot move.

Normal play: the player that cannot move loses the game.
Mis`ere play: the player that cannot move wins the game.
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Definitions: Combinatorial games

Example: Subtraction Game

The subtraction game is an impartial combinatorial game:

A combinatorial game is progressively bounded if, for every starting

position x0 X , there is finite bound on the number of moves before
the game ends. (That is, if B(x) denotes the maximum number of
moves before the game ends, then B(x) < .)

A strategy for a player is a function that assigns a legal move to each

non-terminal position.
If XNT is the set of non-terminal positions for Player I, then
SI : XNT 7 X is a strategy for player I if,
for all x XNT , (x, SI (x)) MI .

A winning strategy for a player from position x:

guaranteed to result in a win for that player from that position.

Positions X = {0, 1, 2, . . . , 15}.

Moves = {(x, y ) X X : y {x 1, x 2}}.

Terminal position: 0.

Normal play: the player who moves to 0 wins.

i.e., the player in the terminal position loses.
Progressively bounded (from x X , there can be no more than x
moves until the terminal position).
A winning strategy for any starting position x N:
S(x) = 3bx/3c.

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Impartial combinatorial games as directed graphs

Example: Subtraction Game

Positions = nodes.

What is the graph for the subtraction game?

Moves = edges.

Every edge from a node in P leads into N.

Terminal positions = nodes without outgoing edges.

There is an edge from a node in N to a node in P.

Normal play: the player who moves to a terminal position wins.

The winning strategy chooses one of these edges.

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Impartial combinatorial games as directed graphs

Impartial combinatorial games and winning strategies

Theorem

What directed graphs correspond to progressively bounded games?

In a progressively bounded impartial

combinatorial game under normal
play, X = N P.
That is, from any initial position, one
of the players has a winning strategy.

Acyclic graphs
... where all paths from a node have bounded length.
What is B(x)?

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Impartial combinatorial games and winning strategies:

Proof

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Impartial combinatorial games and winning strategies:

Proof

Inductive hypothesis: All x with B(x) n are in either N or P.

Base case: B(x) = 0 only for terminal positions. But then x P.

Inductive step: If B(x) = n + 1, then every legal move leads to y with
B(y ) n, so y N P. Then either
1
2

All of these y are in N, which implies x P, or

Some legal move leads to a y in P, which implies x N.

Why did we need the progressively bounded condition?

(Recall: B(x) denotes the maximum number of moves before the game
ends.)
Thus, every x is in N P.
From any initial position, one of the players has a winning strategy.

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Key Ideas: Progressively bounded impartial games

Example: Chomp

Theorem: Every position is in N (positions where the next player has

a winning strategy) or P (positions where the previous player has a
winning strategy).
P: Contains terminal positions; every move leads to N.

Chomp is an impartial combinatorial game:

Positions X = {non-empty subsets of chocolate block :
left-closed and below-closed}.
Moves = {(x, y ) X X : y = x chomp}.

Terminal position: bottom left square (broccoli).

N: Some move leads to P.

Normal play: the player left with the broccoli loses.

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Example: Chomp

Example: Chomp

Chomp is progressively bounded (from x X , there can be no more

than |x| 1 moves until the terminal position).
Hence, there is a winning strategy for one of the players.

Theorem
Every non-terminal rectangle is in N.

Which player?

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Example: Chomp

Example: Chomp

Why?
Because from a rectangle r X , there is a legal move (r , r 0 ) M
that we can always choose to skip, that is, for any move (r 0 , s) M,
we also have (r , s) M.
(What is this r 0 ?)

We showed that, from a non-terminal rectangle, there is a winning

strategy for Player I.
But we didnt construct a winning strategy.
In particular, we didnt prove that r 0 is a good or bad move.
Examples:

Why does this imply r N?

There are two cases:
1

This proof technique is called strategy stealing.

(Well encounter it again.)

r 0 P (which implies r N), and

r 0 N. In this case, there is an s P with (r 0 , s) M. But then we
know that (r , s) M, also implying r N.

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Key Ideas: Progressively bounded impartial games

Theorem: Every position is in N (positions where the next player has

a winning strategy) or P (positions where the previous player has a
winning strategy).
P: Contains terminal positions; every move leads to N.
N: Some move leads to P.

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For a 3 2 rectangle, r 0 is a winning move.

(Check!)
For a large-enough square (n n rectangle with n > 2), r 0 is not a
winning move.
(What is a winning move?)

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