The random graph intuition for the tournament game

DOI10.1017/S096354831500019XzbMATH Open1371.05100arXiv1307.4229MaRDI QIDQ5364264FDOQ5364264

Authors: Dennis Clemens, Heidi Gebauer, Anita Liebenau 

Publication date: 4 October 2017

Published in: Combinatorics, Probability and Computing (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In the tournament game two players, called Maker and Breaker, alternately take turns in claiming an unclaimed edge of the complete graph on n vertices and selecting one of the two possible orientations. Before the game starts, Breaker fixes an arbitrary tournament T_k on k vertices. Maker wins if, at the end of the game, her digraph contains a copy of T_k; otherwise Breaker wins. In our main result, we show that Maker has a winning strategy for k = (2-o(1))log_2 n, improving the constant factor in previous results of Beck and the second author. This is asymptotically tight since it is known that for k = (2-o(1))log_2 n Breaker can prevent that the underlying graph of Maker's graph contains a k-clique. Moreover the precise value of our lower bound differs from the upper bound only by an additive constant of 12. We also discuss the question whether the random graph intuition, which suggests that the threshold for k is asymptotically the same for the game played by two "clever" players and the game played by two "random" players, is supported by the tournament game: It will turn out that, while a straightforward application of this intuition fails, a more subtle version of it is still valid. Finally, we consider the orientation-game version of the tournament game, where Maker wins the game if the final digraph -- containing also the edges directed by Breaker -- possesses a copy of T_k. We prove that in that game Breaker has a winning strategy for k = (4+o(1))log_2 n.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1307.4229

Recommendations

• A remark on the tournament game
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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Directed graphs (digraphs), tournaments (05C20) Games on graphs (graph-theoretic aspects) (05C57) Positional games (pursuit and evasion, etc.) (91A24) Combinatorial games (91A46)

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Cited In (6)

• Multistage positional games
• Tournament games and positive tournaments
• A remark on the tournament game
• A non-trivial upper bound on the threshold bias of the oriented-cycle game
• On the clique-game
• Determining the results of tournament games using complete graphs generation

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