Guaranteed scoring games (Q311536)

Summary: The class of guaranteed scoring games (GS) are two-player combinatorial games with the property that normal-play games [\textit{J. H. Conway}, On numbers and games. 2nd ed. Natick, MA: A K Peters (2001; Zbl 0972.11002)] are ordered embedded into GS. They include, as subclasses, the scoring games considered by \textit{J. W. Milnor} [in: Contrib. Theory of Games, II, Ann. Math. Stud. No. 28, 291--301 (1953; Zbl 0050.14403)], \textit{J. M. Ettinger} [Topics in combinatorial games. Madison, WI: Univ. of Wisconsin (PhD Thesis) (1996)] and \textit{W. Johnson} [Int. J. Game Theory 43, No. 2, 415--438 (2014; Zbl 1294.91040)]. We present the structure of GS and the techniques needed to analyze a sum of guaranteed games. Firstly, GS form a partially ordered monoid, via defined right- and left-stops over the reals, and with disjunctive sum as the operation. In fact, the structure is a quotient monoid with partially ordered congruence classes. We show that there are four reductions that when applied, in any order, give a unique representative for each congruence class. The monoid is not a group, but in this paper we prove that if a game has an inverse it is obtained by `switching the players'. The order relation between two games is defined by comparing their stops in \textit{any} disjunctive sum. Here, we demonstrate how to compare the games via a finite algorithm instead, extending ideas of Ettinger, and also \textit{A. N. Siegel} [Math. Sci. Res. Inst. Publ. 63, 225--239 (2015; Zbl 1380.91052)].