Mentor

Shikhar Ashutosh Moondra

22b0688
Mid-term Report

Introductory page:-
Game theory is a mathematical discipline where a conflict
between two or more parties is
modelled.
In a “game”, the players make decisions simultaneously (or
one after the other; however
the game dictates) which results in subsequent benefit or
payoff. This depends on not only
the individual’s decision, but also on the decision of the other
players.

My report is based upon unbiased games ,meaning there is no

chance or risk involved.
Contents:-
1. Introduction
2. Contents
3. Terminology
-solutions and outcomes.
-misere games.
-partisan and impartial games.
-Dominating strategy
-Fundamental theorem, optimal mixed
strategies.
-Disjuctive sum.
-Grundy.
-Sprague - Grundy theorem
4. Examples(CASE STUDIES)
-NIM game.
-Hacken Bush.
-Sylver-coinage.
-HEX game
-Brouwers fixed point theorem.
-HEX Brouwers fixed point theorem.
-Almost fixed points.
Terminolgy:-
Solutions-
Are contextual while outcomes are often
universal.
Outcomes-
Will include all possibilities regardless of
whether they are useful or not.

Normal and misere play-

->Normal play –
First player to achieve a target .
->Misere play –
first player to not fall in a particular trap or
target.
Partisan and impartial game:-
Partisan games
- These are games are games where
certain moves are reserved for a
certain player example CHESS.
Impartial game
-These are games where all moves are
available to everybody, for example NIM
GAME.

Dominating strategy:-

A strategy that is clearly better than the

others and thus is the best course of
option, the other strategies can be
neglected and can be treated as non -
existent.

The fundamental theorem of Game :-

The Fundamental Theorem of Game

Theory states that for every two-player,
zero-sum game
 there exists a value called the minimax
value or saddle point. This value
represents the maximum payoff
achievable by one player when both
players play optimally.
Specifically, the theorem states that in
such games, there exists at least one pair
of strategies, one for each player, such
that:
1. If Player A chooses their optimal
strategy, Player B cannot do better than
the minimax value, regardless of their
strategy.
2. If Player B chooses their optimal
strategy, Player A cannot do better than
the minimax value, regardless of their
strategy.
The minimax value is achieved when both
players play their optimal strategies. It
ensures that neither player can unilaterally
improve their outcome by deviating from
their optimal strategy.
The Fundamental Theorem of Game
Theory is an important result as it
provides insights into the existence and
nature of optimal strategies in zero-sum
games. It has applications in various areas,
including economics, military strategy, and
decision-making under uncertainty.

Disjunctive sum:-
In the mathematics of combinatorial
games, the sum or disjunctive sum of two
games is a game in which the two games
are played in parallel, with each player
being allowed to move in just one of the
games per turn.

Grundy:-
Describes the mex (minimum excludant )
of a set of Grundy of possible states. Mex of
{0,1,2,5,6,10000} is 3.
Sprague – Grundy Theorem-
The current player has a winning strategy
if and only if the xor-sum of the pile sizes
is non-zero. The xor-sum is
xor(a,b,c,d……).
Examples I studied for this Report:-

Nim game is a game of matchsticks where the

player who picks the last matchstick loses.

Nim game setup

Correct Strategy-
Pairing up the number of sticks in different
rows, to maintain a net
NIM sum = 0(when all sticks are paired up
with some sticks in another row).

Proof-

Analysing a smaller version of this game with

1 row and then 2 rows and then prove the
above claim using induction.
Conclusion-

Player 2 will always win this game using the

correct strategy.
So ,this is a solved game.
This can also be solved using Sprague-
Grundy theorem.

Hacken Bush:-

About-
Hacken Bush is a game where a structure
filled with blue and red rods is built and each
player red and blue take turns to chop down
each rod one by one. Each structure that
might end up floating in the air is immediately
removed.

The Win condition-

The last one to be able to make a move Wins.

Method of approach:-
The method of approach by the authors of
Winning ways to your Mathematical plays is
assigning values to a position.

Single Blue branch =+1.

Single Red branch = -1.
IF player who starts loses then = 0.

And they use another principle that disjoint

positional evaluations can be added.

With these assumptions in mind, construction

of all kinds of positions are possible.
To add another of complexity to the game a
green Rod is also added which can be cut by
both players.

This leads to another unknown position

evaluation - *.
As this is neither Zero , nor positive or
negative.

Its value is confused with zero, but is not zero

and
*+* = 0,meaning it is its own additive inverse.

Similarly a whole Family of Nimbers is

described,
For eg *,*2,*3,up,down,on and off etc.

The study of these numbers becomes difficult

by assigning numbers to positions, so slowly
the focus shifts on finding position for
numbers.
Here, is a table showing that new number
system, which basically takes in the position
one gets to After the first move by both Blue
and Red.

The Right of the Bracket represents Blues

position after his chop.
The Left of the Bracket represents Reds
position after his chop.
Sylver - coinage :-

About-
This game starts with 2 players giving out
numbers which are not the a linear
combination with non-negative integer
coeffiecients of the previously spoken
number.

Win condition-
It’s a Misere game where the player who says
1 first loses.

Method of approach-

Co-operative approach -
This game can go infinitely long, as long as
both players co operate
Example -
(x,x-1,x-2………) as long as x is large enough
this game could go on.

Non – Cooperative approach-

This game uses the Sylvester theorem.

Which states that-
 two numbers (a,b) with gcd(a,b) = 1 and a, b
being positive integers can have a max
number c, which can not be written as a linear
combination with non-negative integer
coefficient of a and b is given by

 c = (ab - a - b)

The proof –

Proof by contradiction can be done using-

1)
(Xa+Yb) = n where X, Y are integers and a, b
are our given numbers with gcd(a,b) = 1 and n
is any integer of choice.
2)
Then implying the condition that x and y must
be greater that zero.

A short proof is in the CDEEP lectures of IIT

Bombay whose link is given below-

https://youtu.be/1vU62zv_gUI

A general proof for gcd(a1,a2,a3,a4….) is

also made by Sylvester.
Case study-

Thus, the game can now be studied with

various openings , and is
an open problem.

Claim:
First player to say either 2 or 3 loses.

Proof-
As the other player will say the remaining
number (3 for 2 and 2 for 3) which leads the
player to pick one and lose immediately.
2*3 – 2 – 3 = 1 ,thus largest positive integer
inexpressible in combination of 2 and 3 with
non-negative linear coefficients is 1.

HEX

About-
a game of assigning hexagons to each player
and finding a route that connects the opposite
sides with their colour.
Win condition-
First player to form a path connecting the two
sides wins.

LEMMA - A hex game can never end in a

draw.

A Rigorous Proof :-
https://youtu.be/EF7Tw-gjQhU

How Hex looks like.

BROUWER’S fixed point theorem:-

Link-
(file:///Users/ashutoshmoondra/Downloads/week3
_notes_hex_brouwer.pdf)

Statement-
This theorem states that if a uniformly continuous
function is applied from R^n to R^n then we will
have a point which will satisfy f(x) = x.

Uniformly continuous function

Functions which have some delta > 0 for every
epsilon > 0 for which there exists for all x ,such
that-

Mod(f(x) – f(y)| < epsilon

Mod(x-y) < delta

This problem though been proved previously using

sperner’s lemma, another proof exists using HEX.

We can imagine the space to be a hex board and

let that space be called Bk;
We can break all the points into 4 parts, points
have moved more than epsilon in the left, right ,up
and down.

Let the left and right ones be coloured red and up

and down be coloured blue.

We know by Hex that only one path would exist if

all points comprise the entire Bk.

Lets prove that they don’t comprise all the points

in Bk using a contradiction.

We know already that the region is mapping to

itself so, clearly Left moved points must have been
in the right.

Similarly for all other directions.

To believe that left moved points and right moved
points meet somewhere to complete the Hex path.

x-y < epsilon. (1)

f(x) – x > epsilon (right moved points) (2)
y – f(y ) > epsilon(left moved points). (3)

so,
f(x) – f(y) –(x-y)>2epsilon (adding 2 and 3)
if true, f(x) – f(y) >epsilon

as here x , y are close points, this can’t be true as

our function is
uniformly continuous and close points will end up
close.

Thus by contradiction, we get that union of all up ,

down, left, right moved points is not Bk.

Which means there exist points that have not

moved more that epsilon.

Now simply keeping a epsilon = 1/k and k tending

to infinity,
We get that there will exist, a fixed point.

Thus proved.

Now as an application we can also locate points

that don’t move as much, points which satisfy
some finite, small value of epsilon.

We can locate points in the left moved region, and

then locate points in the right moved region and
there somewhere in the middle we would find
points that didn’t move.
Similar process for up moved and down moved
and then intersection of both sets to get a final
points that didn’t move.
We can see this little example in the Material to
see this process work .…

Labelling points-
F(x,y)-x>epsilon are labelled (1).
F(x,y)-x<epsilon and F(x,y)-y>epsilon are labelled
(2).

We have to not go in the region that is surrounded

by similarly grouped points.

We need to keep looking at points that are

surrounded by 1 and 2.

Also the stepsize will be determined by the delta

that we intend to keep.