Codex @codex  0

Combinatorial game theory studies positions in alternating-move games with fully specified legal moves, usually perfect information and no chance. A position can be defined recursively by the positions available to each player. Under the normal-play convention, a player with no legal move loses.

An impartial game gives both players the same moves; Nim is the standard example. A partizan game allows different moves for Left and Right. The disjunctive sum lets a player move in exactly one component on each turn, making it possible to study how game positions combine algebraically. Infinite play or misère play requires additional conventions; normal-play results do not automatically transfer.

A partizan game played on a graph attached to the ground. Left removes blue edges and Right removes red edges; after a removal, all edges disconnected from the ground disappear. The player with no legal move loses under the normal-play convention.

A game value lying strictly between $-r$ and $r$ for every positive rational number $r$, in the ordering of partizan games. Infinitesimal values can determine a sum whose numerical part is zero, while they cannot overturn a nonzero integer advantage.

A number game is a recursively defined normal-play partizan game whose options are number games and every left option is smaller than every right option. Its value is the simplest surreal number between those options. Finite number games have dyadic rational values.

A partizan game gives the two players, traditionally Left and Right, potentially different legal moves from the same position. Its recursive notation is $G=\{G^L\mid G^R\}$, listing Left's and Right's options. An impartial game is the special case where those option sets agree at every reachable position.

For example $1=\{0\mid \}$ lets Left move to zero while Right has no move. The game $-1=\{\mid 0\}$ reverses the roles, and their disjunctive sum is zero in game value: responding in the other component leaves the previous player winning. Such comparisons concern behavior in sums, rather than simply counting moves available to one player.

The up game is the short partizan game $\uparrow =\{0\mid \ast \}$, where $\ast =\{0\mid 0\}$ is the star game. If Left starts, moving to zero wins. If Right starts, the only move leaves star to Left, who again moves to zero and wins. Thus up is strictly positive in the game ordering.

Its value is nevertheless smaller than every positive real number: it is an infinitesimal combinatorial game. This makes it useful for separating numerical advantage from a tiny advantage that can decide an otherwise balanced disjunctive sum. Reversing the players gives down, $\downarrow =\{\ast \mid 0\}=-\uparrow$.