Games of No Chance [Paperback]

A fascinating look at the mathematics behind games such as checkers, chess, Go, Nim, and Nine-Men Morris.This volume presents papers from the workshop on Combinatorial Games held at MSRI in July 1994. Combinatorial games are two-person perfect-information games such as chess, checkers, go, domineering, dots-and-boxes, hackenbush, nim, etc. The positions of the latter games in this list tend to decompose into sums of simpler positions. This book will be the newest addition to the literature on combinatorial games, covering many aspects of the current research and will be sought after as a state-of-the-art report in the field.This volume presents papers from the workshop on Combinatorial Games held at MSRI in July 1994. Combinatorial games are two-person perfect-information games such as chess, checkers, go, domineering, dots-and-boxes, hackenbush, nim, etc. The positions of the latter games in this list tend to decompose into sums of simpler positions. This book will be the newest addition to the literature on combinatorial games, covering many aspects of the current research and will be sought after as a state-of-the-art report in the field.Is Nine-Men's Morris, in the hands of perfect players, a win for white or for black--or a draw? Can king, rook, and knight always defeat king and two knights in chess? What can Go players learn from economists? What are nimbers, tinies, switches, minies? This book deals with combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. Their study is at once old and young: though some games, such as chess, have been analyzed for centuries, the first full analysis of a nontrivial combinatorial game (Nim) only appeared in 1902. This book deals with combinatorial games, that is, games not involving chance or hidden information. Their study is at once old and young: though some games, such as chess, have been analyzed for centuries, the first full anlaysis of a nontrivial combinatorial game (Nim) only appelS.