# Infinite board games: sentences about

As a unified approach if we have an ( read any) infinite board game described as $\mathcal{G}$ using a particular axiom set A..

can a sentence be devised in A which automatically answers the basic questions for the game ie

• Won in k moves given any state of the game
• Draw in l moves given any state of the game
• Unending play/Stalemate

Let the axiom set itself is a decidable theory say Presburger arithmetic; so the question of un-decidability does not arise.

Also note that the board itself is an infinite one and so are the number of pieces.Physical examples if required would be infinite -- chess, 4-in-a-row, Go to name a few.

In addition to the list above there are multiple such statements on games on infinite boards. I will try to enumerate a few just to exemplify questions which can be posed about $\mathcal{G}$

• Is it possible to have a a pair of positions A and B, such that we can go from configuration A to B by legal moves, but not from B to A - Reversible Chess
• Win in finite moves n in a row in $R^2$

• I don't understand what you mean by "describing" a game in a weak axiomatic system like Presburger arithmetic. It would make good sense for systems like Peano arithmetic that admit coding of finite sequences and sets, but Presburger arithmetic lacks such coding ability, and this lack is crucial for decidability. – Andreas Blass Jul 4 '13 at 15:27
• I would say that part of what it means to "describe" a game would be that you can express the "win-in-k" and "draw-in-l" problems. But I don't extend this to the "stalemate" problem, since that is infinitary in nature over the state space, as it refers to the existence of a strategy. – Joel David Hamkins Jul 4 '13 at 15:46

I explain in my answer to Richard Stanley's question on the decidability of infinite chess that this is precisely how Dan Brumleve, Philip Schlicht and I proved that the mate-in-$n$ problem of infinite chess is decidable. Namely, we introduced the first-order structure of chess $\frak{Ch}$, whose objects are the various positions of infinite chess and whose relations express the basic chess concepts, relating one position to another when it can be reached by a legal white bishop move, for example. In our article, The mate-in-$n$ problem of infinite chess is decidable, we prove that $\frak{Ch}$ is an automatic structure in the sense of finite automata theory, and also interpretable in Presburger arithemetic. The point now is that the mate-in-$n$ problem is expressible in this structure, and therefore any particular mate-in-$n$ question can be viewed as an assertion in the language of Presburger arithmetic. In particular, the axioms of Presburger arithmetic answer the question of whether any given finite position is mate-in-$n$ or not. And similarly it settles every instance of the drawn-in-$l$ problem.
It seems to me that part of what it must mean to say that you have "described" a game in a system is that you are indeed able to express such concepts as the "win-in-$k$" problem and the "draw-in-$l$" problem, since these problems are expressible using only finitely many quantifiers over the state space of all positions. The "won-position" and "drawn-position" problems, however, are not finitary in nature, since they inquire about the existence of a strategy, an infinitary object. In general, winning strategies in such games can have strictly hyperarithmetic complexity, and so we do not expect them to be determined by Presburger arithmetic. In the case of infinite chess, this is still open, and one can view the situation as asking whether chess ultimately is simple or complicated.
Lastly, let me point out that your three bullet points are not exhaustive, since a position can be a winning position for white, without it being win-in-$k$ for any particular $k$, because black in his play can ensure arbitrarily long play before ultimately losing. This is the main point of Johan Wästlund's question checkmate in $\omega$ moves, which is ultimately about the existence of transfinite game values in infinite chess. (See also my article Transfintie game values in infinite chess.)