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Dominated Options
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In combinatorial game theory making a 'move' is always conceived of as choosing between options (also called followers).

If a player has a dominated option, that means the same as a move without any possible motivation. In practical terms, 'why would you ever play that way?'

This comes down to the ordering of games?: if G >= H then under all possible circumstances one of the players (Left) will choose G rather than H, whenever offered the choice; and the other (Right) naturally will choose H rather than G.

The games may be numbers, in which case we are saying Left always prefers higher numbers, Right always lower numbers.

Therefore playing in a dominated option corresponds to what Go players would call 'taking an unconditional loss', measured against best play.

If two of the options are equal as games, then each makes the other a dominated option. In practical terms this means that you can remove one or the other from consideration.

Charles Matthews



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This is a copy of the living page "Dominated Options" at Sensei's Library.
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