Games of No Chance 4 (Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Publications, Series Number 63)

Combinatorial Games are the strategy games that people like to play. They differ from economic games in that there are two players who play alternately with no hidden cards and no dice, for example Chess, Checkers and Go. They have a non-obvious mathematical structure that allows players to analyze these games in the abstract. This volume introduces a usable abstract theory for misère (last player to move loses) games, extends the theory for some classes of normal-play (last player to move wins) games and extends the analysis for some specific games. Games of Chance Vol 4 also contains the first comprehensive explorations of misère games. It includes a tutorial for the very successful approach to analyzing misère impartial games and the first attempt at using it for misère partisan games as well as an updated version of Unsolved Problems in Combinatorial Game Theory and the Combinatorial Games Bibliography.