In combinatorial game theory, the zero game is the game where neither player has any legal options. Therefore, the first player automatically loses, and it is a second-player win. The zero game has a Sprague–Grundy value of zero. The combinatorial notation of the zero game is: { | }.
A zero game is the opposite of the star (game theory) {0|0}, which is a first-player win since either player must (if first to move in the game) move to a zero game, and therefore win.
The Zero Game is also the title of a novel by Brad Meltzer.
Read more about Zero Game: Sprague-Grundy Value, Examples
Famous quotes containing the word game:
“The indispensable ingredient of any game worth its salt is that the children themselves play it and, if not its sole authors, share in its creation. Watching TV’s ersatz battles is not the same thing at all. Children act out their emotions, they don’t talk them out and they don’t watch them out. Their imagination and their muscles need each other.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)