This second edition of Lessons in Play reorganizes the presentation of the popular original text in combinatorial game theory to make it even more widely accessible. Starting with a focus on the essential concepts and applications, it then moves on to more technical material. Still written in a textbook style with supporting evidence and proofs, the authors add many more exercises and examples and implement a two-step approach for some aspects of the material involving an initial introduction, examples, and basic results to be followed later by more detail and abstract results.

Features

• Employs a widely accessible style to the explanation of combinatorial game theory
• Contains multiple case studies
• Expands further directions and applications of the field
• Includes a complete rewrite of CGSuite material

Table of Contents

0: Combinatorial Games

1: Basic Techniques

2: Outcome Classes

3: Motivational Interlude: Sums of Games

4: The Algebra of Games

5: Values of Games

6: Structure

7: Impartial Games

8: Hot Games

9: All-Small Games

10: Trimming Game Trees

w: Further Directions

A: Top-Down Induction

B: CGSuite

C: Solutions to Exercises

D: Rulesets