Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 29 (2026), Article 26.1.6

Variants of Wythoff Game With Terminal Positions or Blocking Maneuvers


Antoine Renard and Michel Rigo
Department of Mathematics
University of Liège
Allée de la Découverte 12 (B37)
B-4000 Liège
Belgium

Abstract:

We show how the software Walnut can be used to obtain concise proofs of results concerning variants of the famous Wythoff game, incorporating blocking maneuvers or additional terminal positions, as discussed by Larsson (2011) and Komak et al. (2025), respectively. Our approach provides automatic proofs that both confirm and extend their results, and the same techniques apply equally to newly introduced variants. Then, using classical techniques, we obtain new recursive and morphic characterizations of Wythoff-type games in which the terminal positions (x,y) satisfy x + y ≤ ℓ. The use of Walnut in combinatorial game theory is relatively recent, and only a few examples have been investigated so far. The Wythoff game, being directly connected to the Fibonacci numeration system, proves especially well-suited to this kind of approach. It permits us to solve instances for a fixed value of a parameter.


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(Concerned with sequences A000201 A001950 A003622 A005206 A005374 A005375 A005376 A022342 A100721.)


Received December 17 2025; revised versions received December 26 2025; December 28 2025; February 16 2026. Published in Journal of Integer Sequences, March 2 2026.


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