In game theory, a null move or pass is a decision by a player to not to make a move when it is their turn to move. Even though null moves are against the rules of many games, they are often useful to consider when analyzing these games. Examples of this include the analysis of zugzwang (a situation in chess or other games in which a null move, if it were allowed, would be better than any other move), and the null-move heuristic in game tree analysis (a method of pruning game trees involving making a null move and then searching to a lower depth).
Famous quotes containing the words null and/or move:
“A strong person makes the law and custom null before his own will.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The poem refreshes life so that we share,
For a moment, the first idea . . . It satisfies
Belief in an immaculate beginning
And sends us, winged by an unconscious will,
To an immaculate end. We move between these points:
From that ever-early candor to its late plural....”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)