Misère domineering on 2 × n boards
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Aaron Dwyer
Abstract
Domineering is a well-studied tiling game, in which one player places vertical dominoes, and a second places horizontal dominoes, alternating turns until someone cannot place on their turn. Previous research has found game outcomes and values for certain rectangular boards under normal play (last move wins); however, nothing has been published about domineering under misère play (last move loses). We find optimal-play outcomes for all 2 × n boards under misère play: these games are Right-win for n ⩾ 12. We also present algebraic results including sums, inverses, and comparisons in misère domineering.
Abstract
Domineering is a well-studied tiling game, in which one player places vertical dominoes, and a second places horizontal dominoes, alternating turns until someone cannot place on their turn. Previous research has found game outcomes and values for certain rectangular boards under normal play (last move wins); however, nothing has been published about domineering under misère play (last move loses). We find optimal-play outcomes for all 2 × n boards under misère play: these games are Right-win for n ⩾ 12. We also present algebraic results including sums, inverses, and comparisons in misère domineering.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents XIII
- The game of flipping coins 1
- The game of blocking pebbles 17
- Transverse Wave: an impartial color-propagation game inspired by social influence and Quantum Nim 39
- A note on numbers 67
- Ordinal sums, clockwise hackenbush, and domino shave 77
- Advances in finding ideal play on poset games 99
- Strings-and-Coins and Nimstring are PSPACE-complete 109
- Partizan subtraction games 121
- Circular Nim games CN(7, 4) 139
- Misère domineering on 2 × n boards 157
- Relator games on groups 171
- Playing Bynum’s game cautiously 201
- Genetically modified games 229
- Game values of arithmetic functions 245
- A base-p Sprague–Grundy-type theorem for p-calm subtraction games: Welter’s game and representations of generalized symmetric groups 281
- Recursive comparison tests for dicot and dead-ending games under misère play 309
- Impartial games with entailing moves 323
- Extended Sprague–Grundy theory for locally finite games, and applications to random game-trees 343
- Grundy numbers of impartial three-dimensional chocolate-bar games 367
- On the structure of misère impartial games 389
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents XIII
- The game of flipping coins 1
- The game of blocking pebbles 17
- Transverse Wave: an impartial color-propagation game inspired by social influence and Quantum Nim 39
- A note on numbers 67
- Ordinal sums, clockwise hackenbush, and domino shave 77
- Advances in finding ideal play on poset games 99
- Strings-and-Coins and Nimstring are PSPACE-complete 109
- Partizan subtraction games 121
- Circular Nim games CN(7, 4) 139
- Misère domineering on 2 × n boards 157
- Relator games on groups 171
- Playing Bynum’s game cautiously 201
- Genetically modified games 229
- Game values of arithmetic functions 245
- A base-p Sprague–Grundy-type theorem for p-calm subtraction games: Welter’s game and representations of generalized symmetric groups 281
- Recursive comparison tests for dicot and dead-ending games under misère play 309
- Impartial games with entailing moves 323
- Extended Sprague–Grundy theory for locally finite games, and applications to random game-trees 343
- Grundy numbers of impartial three-dimensional chocolate-bar games 367
- On the structure of misère impartial games 389
