In this paper, we study an impartial game called Delete Nim. In this game, there are two heaps of stones. The player chooses one of the heaps and delete the other heap. Next, she takes away one stone from the chosen heap and optionally splits it into two heaps. We show the way to calculate the G-value of this game by using the OR operation and 2-adic valuation.
The Sprague-Grundy (SG) theory reduces the sum of impartial games to the classical game of $NIM$. We generalize the concept of sum and introduce $\cH$-combinations of impartial games for any hypergraph $\cH$. In particular, we introduce the game $NIM_\cH$ which is the $\cH$-combination of single pile $NIM$ games. An impartial game is called SG decreasing if its SG value is decreased by every move. Extending the SG theory, we reduce the $\cH$-combination of SG decreasing games to $NIM_\cH$. We call $\cH$ a Tetris hypergraph if $NIM_\cH$ is SG decreasing. We provide some necessary and some suffi…
Nim is a well-known combinatorial game with several variants, e.g., Delete Nim and Variant Delete Nim. In Variant Delete Nim, the player deletes one of the two heaps of stones and splits the other heap on his/her turn. In this paper, we discuss generalized Variant Delete Nim, which generalizes the number of stone heaps to three or more, All-but-one-delete Nim, Half-delete Nim, No-more-than-half-delete Nim, and Single-delete Nim. We study the win-loss conditions for each of these games.
The study of the combinatorial game Nim and its variants is rich and varied, but little is known of the game Nim with a Pass. It is Nim, but once per game a player is permitted to skip their turn but this can only be done if a nonempty pile remains. In this paper we define a new binary operation on games which we use to prove novel properties of Nim with a Pass, as well as games which are generalizations of it. Most importantly, we make small progress on finding the $\mathcal{P}$-positions and optimal strategies of the game.
We determine the misère equivalence classes of Nim positions under two equivalence relations: one based on playing disjunctive sums with other impartial games, and one allowing sums with partizan games. In the impartial context, the only identifications we can make are those stemming from the known fact about adding a heap of size 1. In the partizan context, distinct Nim positions are inequivalent.
In this paper, we study a colorful, impartial combinatorial game played on a two-dimensional grid, Transverse Wave. We are drawn to this game because of its apparent simplicity, contrasting intractability, and intrinsic connection to two other combinatorial games, one inspired by social influence and another inspired by quantum superpositions. More precisely, we show that Transverse Wave is at the intersection of social-influence-inspired Friend Circle and superposition-based Demi-Quantum Nim. Transverse Wave is also connected with Schaefer's logic game Avoid True. In addition to analyzing the…
Chocolate bar games are variants of the game of Nim in which the goal is to leave your opponent with the single bitter part of the chocolate bar. The rectangular chocolate bar game is a thinly disguised form of classical multi-heap Nim. In this work, we investigate the mathematical structure of triangular chocolate bar games in which the triangular chocolate bar can be cut in three directions. In the triangular chocolate bar game, a position is a $\mathcal{P}$-position if and only if $x \oplus y \oplus z = 0$, where the numbers $x,y,z$ stand for the maximum number of times that the chocolate b…
The concept of nimbers--a.k.a. Grundy-values or nim-values--is fundamental to combinatorial game theory. Nimbers provide a complete characterization of strategic interactions among impartial games in their disjunctive sums as well as the winnability. In this paper, we initiate a study of nimber-preserving reductions among impartial games. These reductions enhance the winnability-preserving reductions in traditional computational characterizations of combinatorial games. We prove that Generalized Geography is complete for the natural class, $\cal{I}^P$ , of polynomially-short impartial rulesets…
We study a game where two players take turns selecting points of a convex geometry until the convex closure of the jointly selected points contains all the points of a given winning set. The winner of the game is the last player able to move. We develop a structure theory for these games and use it to determine the nim number for several classes of convex geometries, including one-dimensional affine geometries, vertex geometries of trees, and games with a winning set consisting of extreme points.
Playing impartial games under the normal and misere conventions may differ a lot. However, there are also many "exceptions" for which the normal and misere plays are very similar. As early as in 1901 Bouton noticed that this is the case with the game of Nim. In 1976 Conway introduced a large class of such games that he called tame games. Here we introduce a proper subclass, pet games, and a proper superclass, domestic games. For each of these three classes we provide an efficiently verifiable characterization based on the following property. These games are closely related to another important…
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…
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 assigned to them. However, there are rulesets with {\em entailing moves} that break the alternating play axiom and/or restrict the other player's options within the disjunctive sum components. These situations are exemplified in the literature by a ruleset such as {\sc nimstring}, a normal play variation of the classical children's game {\sc dots \& boxes}, and {…
We introduce and analyse an extension of the disjunctive sum operation on some classical impartial games. Whereas the disjunctive sum describes positions formed from independent subpositions, our operation combines positions that are not completely independent but interact only in a very restricted way. We extend the games Nim and Silver Dollar, played by moving counters along one-dimensional strips of cells, by joining several strips at their initial cell. We prove that, in certain cases, computing the Sprague-Grundy function can be simplified to that of a simpler game with at most two tokens…
We study an impartial game introduced by Anderson and Harary. This game is played by two players who alternately choose previously-unselected elements of a finite group. The first player who builds a generating set from the jointly-selected elements wins. We determine the nim-numbers of this game for generalized dihedral groups, which are of the form $\operatorname{Dih}(A)= \mathbb{Z}_2 \ltimes A$ for a finite abelian group $A$.
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 normal play have natural analogues in this setting. For impartial games with three players, we investigate the possible outcomes of a sum in detail, and determine the outcomes and structure of three-player Nim.
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University(圣本笃学院与圣约翰大学);Northern Arizona University(北亚利桑那大学);Lewis University(路易斯大学);University of Colorado Boulder(科罗拉多大学博尔德分校)
The authors introduce the impartial game of the generalized Ryūō Nim, a variant of the classical game of Wythoff Nim. In the latter game, two players take turns in moving a single queen on a large chessboard, attempting to be the first to put her in the upper left corner, position $(0,0)$. Instead of the queen used in Wythoff Nim, we use the generalized Ryūō for a given natural number $p$. The generalized Ryūō for $p$ can be moved horizontally and vertically, as far as one wants. It also can be moved diagonally from $(x,y)$ to $(x-s,y-t)$, where $s,t$ are non-negative integers such that $1 \le…
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University(圣本笃学院和圣约翰大学);Northern Arizona University(北亚利桑那大学);University of South Florida(南佛罗里达大学);University of Colorado Boulder(科罗拉多大学博尔德分校)
We settle two long-standing complexity-theoretical questions-open since 1981 and 1993-in combinatorial game theory (CGT). We prove that the Grundy value (a.k.a. nim-value, or nimber) of Undirected Geography is PSPACE-complete to compute. This exhibits a stark contrast with a result from 1993 that Undirected Geography is polynomial-time solvable. By distilling to a simple reduction, our proof further establishes a dichotomy theorem, providing a "phase transition to intractability" in Grundy-value computation, sharply characterized by a maximum degree of four: The Grundy value of Undirected Geog…