Two Person Zero Sum Games

Two-person zero-sum game theory deals with situations that are perfectly competitive—there are exactly two decision makers for whom there is no possibility of cooperation or compromise. It is the most fundamental part of game theory, and the part most commonly applied. There are diverse applications to military battles, sports, parlor games, economics and politics. The theory was born in World War II, and has by now matured into a significant and tractable body of knowledge about competitive decision making. The advent of modern, powerful computers has enabled the solution of many games that were once beyond computational reach. Two-Person Zero-Sum Games, 4th Ed. offers an up-to-date introduction to the subject, especially its computational aspects. Any finite game can be solved by the brute force method of enumerating all possible strategies and then applying linear programming. The trouble is that many interesting games have far too many strategies to enumerate, even with the aid of computers. After introducing ideas, terminology, and the brute force method in the initial chapters, the rest of the book is devoted to classes of games that can be solved without enumerating every strategy. Numerous examples are given, as well as an extensive set of exercises. Many of the exercises are keyed to sheets of an included Excel workbook that can be freely downloaded from the SpringerExtras website. This new edition can be used as either a reference book or as a textbook.

Two-person zero-sum game theory deals with situations that are perfectly competitive—there are exactly two decision makers for whom there is no possibility of cooperation or compromise. It is the most fundamental part of game theory, and the part most commonly applied. There are diverse applications to military battles, sports, parlor games, economics and politics. The theory was born in World War II, and has by now matured into a significant and tractable body of knowledge about competitive decision making. The advent of modern, powerful computers has enabled the solution of many games that were once beyond computational reach. Two-Person Zero-Sum Games, 4th Ed. offers an up-to-date introduction to the subject, especially its computational aspects. Any finite game can be solved by the brute force method of enumerating all possible strategies and then applying linear programming. The trouble is that many interesting games have far too many strategies to enumerate, even with the aid of computers. After introducing ideas, terminology, and the brute force method in the initial chapters, the rest of the book is devoted to classes of games that can be solved without enumerating every strategy. Numerous examples are given, as well as an extensive set of exercises. Many of the exercises are keyed to sheets of an included Excel workbook that can be freely downloaded from the SpringerExtras website. This new edition can be used as either a reference book or as a textbook.

This fascinating and provocative book presents the fundamentals of two-person game theory, a mathematical approach to understanding human behavior and decision-making.

This text opens with the theory of 2-person zero-sum games, 2-person non-zero sum games, and n-person games, at a level between non-mathematical introductory books and technical mathematical game theory books. Includes introductory explanations of gaming and meta games. Includes numerous exercises anbd problems with solutions and over 30 illustrations. 1986 edition.

This volume aims to present the basic results in the theory of two-person zero-sum repeated games including stochastic games and repeated games with incomplete information. It is intended for graduate students with no previous knowledge of the field.

We live in a highly connected world with multiple self-interested agents interacting and myriad opportunities for conflict and cooperation. The goal of game theory is to understand these opportunities. This book presents a rigorous introduction to the mathematics of game theory without losing sight of the joy of the subject. This is done by focusing on theoretical highlights (e.g., at least six Nobel Prize winning results are developed from scratch) and by presenting exciting connections of game theory to other fields such as computer science (algorithmic game theory), economics (auctions and matching markets), social choice (voting theory), biology (signaling and evolutionary stability), and learning theory. Both classical topics, such as zero-sum games, and modern topics, such as sponsored search auctions, are covered. Along the way, beautiful mathematical tools used in game theory are introduced, including convexity, fixed-point theorems, and probabilistic arguments. The book is appropriate for a first course in game theory at either the undergraduate or graduate level, whether in mathematics, economics, computer science, or statistics. The importance of game-theoretic thinking transcends the academic setting—for every action we take, we must consider not only its direct effects, but also how it influences the incentives of others.