Lessons in Play

Lessons in Play
Author: Michael Albert
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2007-07-02
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1439864373

Combinatorial games are games of pure strategy involving two players, with perfect information and no element of chance. Starting from the very basics of gameplay and strategy, the authors cover a wide range of topics, from game algebra to special classes of games. Classic techniques are introduced and applied in novel ways to analyze both old and

Combinatorial Game Theory

Combinatorial Game Theory
Author: Aaron N. Siegel
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2013-08-01
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 082185190X

Combinatorial game theory is the study of two-player games with no hidden information and no chance elements. The theory assigns algebraic values to positions in such games and seeks to quantify the algebraic and combinatorial structure of their interactions. Its modern form was introduced thirty years ago, with the publication of the classic Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays by Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy, and interest has rapidly increased in recent decades. This book is a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the subject, tracing its development from first principles and examples through many of its most recent advances. Roughly half the book is devoted to a rigorous treatment of the classical theory; the remaining material is an in-depth presentation of topics that appear for the first time in textbook form, including the theory of misère quotients and Berlekamp's generalized temperature theory. Packed with hundreds of examples and exercises and meticulously cross-referenced, Combinatorial Game Theory will appeal equally to students, instructors, and research professionals. More than forty open problems and conjectures are mentioned in the text, highlighting the many mysteries that still remain in this young and exciting field. Aaron Siegel holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley and has held positions at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute and the Institute for Advanced Study. He was a partner at Berkeley Quantitative, a technology-driven hedge fund, and is presently employed by Twitter, Inc.

Combinatorial Games

Combinatorial Games
Author: József Beck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 750
Release: 2011-04-28
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 9780521184755

Traditional game theory has been successful at developing strategy in games of incomplete information: when one player knows something that the other does not. But it has little to say about games of complete information, for example, tic-tac-toe, solitaire and hex. The main challenge of combinatorial game theory is to handle combinatorial chaos, where brute force study is impractical. In this comprehensive volume, József Beck shows readers how to escape from the combinatorial chaos via the fake probabilistic method, a game-theoretic adaptation of the probabilistic method in combinatorics. Using this, the author is able to determine the exact results about infinite classes of many games, leading to the discovery of some striking new duality principles. Available for the first time in paperback, it includes a new appendix to address the results that have appeared since the book's original publication.

Fair Game

Fair Game
Author: Richard K. Guy
Publisher: Comap
Total Pages: 113
Release: 1989
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780912843162

Combinatorial Games

Combinatorial Games
Author: Richard K. Guy
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2000-08-30
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0821819259

Based on lectures presented at the AMS Short Course on Combinatorial Games, held at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Columbus in August 1990, the ten papers in this volume will provide readers with insight into this exciting field. Because the book requires very little background, it will likely find a wide audience that includes the amateur interested in playing games, the undergraduate looking for a new area of study, instructors seeking a refreshing area in which to give new courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and graduate students looking for a variety of research topics.

Cooperative Games on Combinatorial Structures

Cooperative Games on Combinatorial Structures
Author: Jesús Mario Bilbao
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2000-02-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780792377825

The aim of Cooperative Games on Combinatorial Structures is to analyze conflict situations in which two or more players can make coalitions and obtain prizes and penalties. This approach to situations of competition and cooperation was given in the seminal treatise by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Cooperative game theory has succeeded in providing many applications of game theory. In this volume, games defined on combinatorial structures will be analyzed, i.e. a set system over a set of players. In many situations the author will work in a closure space. Examples of closure operators are the spanning operator of linear algebra and all convex hull operators. Chapters 1-4 constitute a review of mathematical concepts from Cooperative Game Theory, Graph Theory, Linear and Integer Programming, Combinatorial Optimization, Discrete Convex Analysis and Computational Complexity. The table of contents is a short guide to the topics and methods covered in this book. In Chapters 11 and 12, several notebooks are presented with the system Mathematica by Wolfram in the contexts of the packages DiscreteMath (Skiena) and Cooperative (Carter). There will also be found in the book several research projects. These are intended to offer new ideas that the reader should consider with caution. This book will be of interest to graduate students with some experience in game theory or mathematical programming and professional researchers in game theory, operational research and its applications in economic theory, and the political and social sciences. In addition, it will be especially useful for professionals who are interested in models for understanding and managing conflicts: management and operational research scientists, political and military scientists, and professional negotiators.

Lessons in Play

Lessons in Play
Author: Michael H. Albert
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2019-04-30
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 0429524099

This second edition of Lessons in Play reorganizes the presentation of the popular original text in combinatorial game theory to make it even more widely accessible. Starting with a focus on the essential concepts and applications, it then moves on to more technical material. Still written in a textbook style with supporting evidence and proofs, the authors add many more exercises and examples and implement a two-step approach for some aspects of the material involving an initial introduction, examples, and basic results to be followed later by more detail and abstract results. Features Employs a widely accessible style to the explanation of combinatorial game theory Contains multiple case studies Expands further directions and applications of the field Includes a complete rewrite of CGSuite material

Cooperative Game Theory and Applications

Cooperative Game Theory and Applications
Author: Imma Curiel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 147574871X

In this book applications of cooperative game theory that arise from combinatorial optimization problems are described. It is well known that the mathematical modeling of various real-world decision-making situations gives rise to combinatorial optimization problems. For situations where more than one decision-maker is involved classical combinatorial optimization theory does not suffice and it is here that cooperative game theory can make an important contribution. If a group of decision-makers decide to undertake a project together in order to increase the total revenue or decrease the total costs, they face two problems. The first one is how to execute the project in an optimal way so as to increase revenue. The second one is how to divide the revenue attained among the participants. It is with this second problem that cooperative game theory can help. The solution concepts from cooperative game theory can be applied to arrive at revenue allocation schemes. In this book the type of problems described above are examined. Although the choice of topics is application-driven, it also discusses theoretical questions that arise from the situations that are studied. For all the games described attention will be paid to the appropriateness of several game-theoretic solution concepts in the particular contexts that are considered. The computation complexity of the game-theoretic solution concepts in the situation at hand will also be considered.

Mathematical Go

Mathematical Go
Author: Elwyn Berlekamp
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1994-02-15
Genre: Mathematics
ISBN: 1439863555

The ancient game of Go is one of the less obvious candidates for mathematical analysis. With the development of new concepts in combinatorial game theory, the authors have been able to analyze Go games and find solutions to real endgame problems that have stumped professional Go players. Go players with an interest in mathematics and mathematicians