【Combinatorial Games】G Is a Group

Short Games

A combinatorial game $G$ is short provided that:

• $G$ is finite: it has just finitely many subpositions, and
• $G$ is loopfree: it admits no infinite run (equivalently, there is no sequence of moves proceeding from $G$ that repeats a position).

The Group $\mathbb{G}$

Definition 1.1. Let $\widetilde{{\mathbb{G}}_0}=0$, and for $n\ge 0$ put
G n + 1 ~ = { { g L ∣ g R } : g L , g R ⊂ G n ~ } \tilde{\mathbb{G}_{n+1}} = \{\{g^L|g^R\}:g^L,g^R \subset \tilde{\mathbb{G}_{n}}\} Gn+1​~​={{gL∣gR}:gL,gR⊂Gn​~​}
Then a short game is an element of
$$\tilde{\mathbb{G}}=\bigcup _{n\ge 0}\widetilde{{\mathbb{G}}_n}$$
Definition1.2. Let $G$ and $H$ be short games. The disjunctive sum $G+H$ is defined recursively by
G + H = { G L + H , G + H L ∣ G R + H , G + H R } . G + H = \{G^L + H, G + H^L | G^R + H, G+ H ^R\}. G+H={GL+H,G+HL∣GR+H,G+HR}.
Proposition1.3. Disjunctive sum is commutative and associative.

Definition 1.4. Let $G$ be a short game. The negative $-G$ is defined recursively by
− G = { − G R ∣ − G L } -G = \{-G^R |-G^L\} −G={−GR∣−GL}
Proposition 1.5. $-(-G)\cong G$

Outcomes and Values

Definition 1.6. We define $P^L$ (games that Left can win as second player), $P^R$(like wise for Right), $N^L$(games that Left can win as first player), and $N^R$(likewise for Right) recursively by:
$$\begin{gathered} G\in P^{L}ifevery{G}^R\in N^L,G\in N^{L}ifsome{G}^L\in P^L \\ G\in P^{R}ifevery{G}^L\in N^R,G\in N^{R}ifsome{G}^R\in P^R. \end{gathered}$$
Then
$$\begin{gathered} L=P^L\cap N^L,P=P^L\cap P^R, \\ N=N^L\cap N^R,R=P^R\cap N^R. \end{gathered}$$
Definition 1.7. Let $G$ and $H$ be short games. Then we write
$$G=Hifo(G+X)=o(H+X)foreveryshortgameX$$
Proposition 1.8. $=$ is an equivalence relation.

$\mathbb{G}$ Is a Group

Proposition 1.10. If $G=H$, then $G+J=H+J$.

Proposition 1.11. $0+G\cong G$.

Theorem 1.12. $G=0$ if and only if $o(G)=P$.

Theorem 1.13. $G-G=0$

Theorem 1.14. $\mathbb{G}$ is an Abelian group.

Corollary 1.15. $G=H$ if and only if $o(G-H)=P$.