A Subtraction-Division game is a two player combinatorial game with three parameters: a set S, a set D, and a number n. The game starts at n, and is a race to say the number 1. Each player, on their turn, can either move the total to n-s for some s in S or to \lceil\frac{n}{d}\rceil, for some d in D (i.e. either subtract s or divide by d and round up).
This paper examines in detail the Sprague-Grundy sequences for the games when |S|=|D|=1. For a large class of these games, the patterns in the sequences allow for a characterization of all the winning positions. The paper also proves that, for the same large class, these sequences are automatic. In the process, a large family of recurrences that completely determine their behavior is constructed.
In this paper, we study a combination (called the generalized cyclic Nimhoff) of the cyclic Nimhoff and subtraction games. We give the $\mathcal{G}$-value of the game when all the $\mathcal{G}$-value sequence of subtraction games have a common $h$-stair structure.
For impartial games $Γ$ and $Γ'$, the Sprague-Grundy function of the disjunctive sum $Γ+ Γ'$ is equal to the Nim-sum of their Sprague-Grundy functions. In this paper, we introduce $p$-calm subtraction games, and show that for $p$-calm subtraction games $Γ$ and $Γ'$, the Sprague-Grundy function of a $p$-saturation of $Γ+ Γ'$ is equal to the $p$-Nim-sum of the Sprague-Grundy functions of their $p$-saturations. Here a $p$-Nim-sum is the result of addition without carrying in base $p$ and a $p$-saturation of $Γ$ is an impartial game obtained from $Γ$ by adding some moves. It will turn out that Nim…
A comply/constrain game or a game with a Muller twist is a game where the next player is allowed to place constraints on opponent's next move. We develop a closed form formula for the Grundy value of the single-pile subtraction game where the next player may determine whether the previous player has to select a move from the set of some first k natural numbers or its complement. We also investigate the periodicity of Grundy values when the set of legal moves is from a set of finite arithmetic sequences.
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 it would also be deleted. A player wins the game when the other player has no moves available. We study this game under various viewpoints: by finding specific strategies for certain families of graphs, through using properties of a graph's automorphism group, by writing a program to look at Sprague-Grundy numbers, and by studying the game when played on rand…
We study algorithmic complexity of solving subtraction games in a~fixed dimension with a finite difference set. We prove that there exists a game in this class such that any algorithm solving the game runs in exponential time. Also we prove an existence of a game in this class such that solving the game is PSPACE-hard. The results are based on the construction introduced by Larsson and Wästlund. It relates subtraction games and cellular automata.
We study zero-sum games, a variant of the classical combinatorial Subtraction games (studied for example in the monumental work "Winning Ways", by Berlekamp, Conway and Guy), called Cumulative Subtraction (CS). Two players alternate in moving, and get points for taking pebbles out of a joint pile. We prove that the outcome in optimal play (game value) of a CS with a finite number of possible actions is eventually periodic, with period $2s$, where $s$ is the size of the largest available action. This settles a conjecture by Stewart in his Ph.D. thesis (2011). Specifically, we find a quadratic b…
Partizan subtraction games are combinatorial games where two players, say Left and Right, alternately remove a number n of tokens from a heap of tokens, with $n \in S_L$ (resp. $n \in S_R$) when it is Left's (resp. Right's) turn. The first player unable to move loses. These games were introduced by Fraenkel and Kotzig in 1987, where they introduced the notion of dominance, i.e. an asymptotic behavior of the outcome sequence where Left always wins if the heap is sufficiently large. In the current paper, we investigate the other kinds of behaviors for the outcome sequence. In addition to dominan…
We study zero-sum (combinatorial) games, within the framework of so-called Richman auctions (Lazarus et al. 1996) namely, we modify the alternating play scoring ruleset Cumulative Subtraction (CS) (Cohensius et al. 2019), to a discrete bidding scheme (similar to Develin and Payne 2010). Players bid to move and the player with the highest bid wins the move, and hands over the winning bidding amount to the other player. The new game is dubbed Bidding Cumulative Subtraction (BCS). In so-called unitary games, players remove exactly one item out of a single heap of identical items, until the heap i…
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 relatively prime numbers, and their negations.
