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Solved board games

A two-player game can be "solved" on several levels.
  1. Ultra-weak: In the weakest sense, solving a game means proving whether the first player will win, lose, or draw from the initial position, given perfect play on both sides.
  2. Weak: More typically, solving a game means providing an algorithm which secures a win for one player, or a draw for either, against any possible moves by the opponent, from the initial position only.
  3. Strong: The strongest sense of solution requires an algorithm which can produce perfect play from any position, i.e. even if mistakes have already been made on one or both sides. For a game with a finite number of positions, this is always possible with a powerful enough computer, by checking all the positions. However, there is the question of finding an efficient algorithm, or an algorithm that works on computers currently available.

Table of contents
1 Solved games
2 Partially solved games

Solved games

Partially solved games

See Also: Board game complexity

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