The Anti-Pattern Game: A Modal Logic Puzzle
2025-08-13
This article introduces a two-player game called the "Anti-Pattern Game", where players take turns placing black and white pebbles on a line. A player loses if a sequence of three identical subsequences appears. The author used a Haskell program to find a winning strategy for Player 1 in under 22 moves. The article explores broader questions, such as whether cooperating players can play indefinitely, game strategies with more colors or repetition rules, and winning conditions and strategies for a three-player variant. These questions are challenging, and some answers remain elusive.
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Game
Modal Logic