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The completeness game $G_{\gamma}(P)$ for a partial order $P$ has players COM and INC play alternatingly and descendingly elements of $P$ with player INC playing first and player COM playing at limit steps. INC wins the game if at some point $\alpha<\gamma$ (necessarily a limit ordinal) there are no legal moves left. Otherwise, COM wins.

By a theorem of Foreman, for a successor cardinal $\kappa=\lambda^+$, $P$ is $<\kappa$-distributive (i.e. every sequence of $<\kappa$ ordinals is in $V$) iff INC does not have a winning strategy in $G_{\lambda+1}(P)$.

Let $\kappa=\lambda^+$ be a successor cardinal.

  • Assume INC has a winning strategy in $G_{\kappa}(P)$. Does INC have a winning strategy in $G_{\lambda+1}(P)$? I.e. if INC always wins eventually, can they uniformly bound the time it takes for them to win?
  • If $P$ is $<\kappa$-closed (every sequence of $<\kappa$ conditions in $P$ has a lower bound) and $Q$ is $\kappa$-cc., $P$ is $<\kappa$-distributive in $V[G]$, where $G$ is $Q$-generic. Can INC have a winning strategy in $G_{\kappa}(P)$ in $V[G]$? What if $Q$ is $\kappa$-Knaster?

Edit: The answer to the first question is "no". If $(T,\leq)$ is an $\omega_1$-Suslin-tree, $(T,\geq)$ is $<\omega_1$-distributive (see e.g. Lemma 15.28 in Jech, noting the different definition of distributivity). However, INC has an easy winning strategy in $G_{\omega_1}((T,\leq))$, by simply playing any node strictly above COMs last play, since a play in which COM wins corresponds to a cofinal chain in $(T,\leq)$.

It still remains if such an object can be added by a tame forcing notion.

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The answer to the second question is no as well.

Suppose $\dot\tau$ is a $Q$-name for a strategy for the player INC in the game $G_\kappa(P)$. Let us pretend that COM opens the game instead of INC and note that this is unproblematic. We will define by induction a descending sequence $\langle p_\alpha\mid\alpha<\kappa\rangle$ of conditions in $P$ and $Q$-names $\langle \dot p_\alpha\mid\alpha<\kappa\rangle$ so that

  • $\Vdash_Q\check p_\beta\leq \dot p_\alpha\leq\check p_\alpha$ for all $\beta\leq\alpha$
  • $\Vdash_Q$"The sequence $\langle \dot p_\beta\mid\beta\leq\alpha\rangle$ make up the fist $\alpha+1$-many moves of player COM in a game of $G_{\check\kappa}(\check P)$ in which INC plays according to $\dot\tau$ and the final response of $\dot \tau$ to this is a condition $\leq\check p_\alpha$."

for all $\alpha<\kappa$. It follows that if $G$ is $Q$-generic then COM wins against $\dot\tau^G$ by playing the conditions $\langle \dot p_\alpha^G\mid\alpha<\kappa\rangle$, so $\dot\tau$ is not a winning strategy for INC.

Let us turn to the construction. Assume $\alpha<\kappa$ and that $\dot p_\beta, p_\beta$ are defined for all $\beta<\alpha$. Let $s_0$ be some lower bound of $\langle p_\beta\mid\beta<\alpha\rangle$ which exists as $P$ is ${<}\kappa$-closed. Build descending sequences of maximal possible length $$\langle s_\gamma\mid\gamma\leq\xi\rangle,\ \langle t_\gamma\mid\gamma<\xi\rangle$$ and an antichain $A_\xi:=\{q_\gamma\mid \gamma<\xi\}\subseteq Q$ so that

  • $s_\gamma\leq t_\gamma\leq s_{\gamma+1}$ for all $\gamma<\xi$ and
  • $q_\gamma\Vdash_Q$"if COM plays $\langle \dot p_\beta\mid\beta<\alpha\rangle^\frown\check s_\gamma$ and INC follows $\dot\tau$, INC's final play is $t_\gamma$".

The construction is straightforward and can only break down for two reasons: Either there is no lower bound of $\langle t_\gamma\mid\gamma<\xi\rangle$ or $A_\xi$ is a maximal antichain in $Q$. The latter must happen first since $P$ is ${<}\kappa$-closed and $Q$ is $\kappa$-cc. We set $p_\alpha$ to be the final $s_\xi$ and by mixing of names, we can find a $Q$-name $\dot p_\alpha$ so that $$q_\gamma\Vdash_Q\dot p_\alpha=\check s_\gamma$$ for all $\gamma<\xi$. This completes the construction.

Finally, let me remark that this is sensitive to the order of play in $G_\kappa(P)$: If $G_\kappa'(P)$ is the game where INC plays at limit steps instead of COM then it is possible that INC has a winning strategy for $G_\kappa'(P)$ in $V^Q$:

Let $Q$ be the poset of finite partial functions $q:\omega_1\rightarrow 2$ ordered by inclusion and let $P=\mathrm{Add}(\omega_1, 1)$. $Q$ is ccc and $P$ is ${<}\omega_1$-closed. Let $G$ be $Q$-generic and consider the strategy for INC for the game $G_\kappa'(P)$ where INC adds a bit of information which agrees with the generic function $\bigcup G$ at the least ordinal which is not yet in the domain of any condition played so far. Assume toward a contradiction that some game in which INC follows this strategy lasts for $\omega_1$-many rounds. The result is a function $f\colon\omega_1\rightarrow 2$ which agrees with $\bigcup G$ on a club $C$. Now $Q$ is ccc, so there is a club $C'\subseteq C$ with $C'\in V$. It follows that $f\notin V$, but we must have $f\upharpoonright\alpha\in V$ for all $\alpha<\omega_1$. This is impossible by a result of Spencer Unger: As $Q\times Q$ is ccc, $Q$ has the $\omega_1$-approximation property, see Lemma 1.2 in Fragility and indestructibility II, Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 166 (2015) 1110-1122.

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