Chomp - Generalisations of Chomp

Generalisations of Chomp

Three-dimensional Chomp has an initial chocolate bar of a cuboid of blocks indexed as (i,j,k). A move is to take a block together with any block all of whose indices are greater or equal to the corresponding index of the chosen block. In the same way Chomp can be generalised to any number of dimensions.

Chomp is sometimes described numerically. An initial natural number is given, and players alternate choosing positive proper divisors of the initial number, but may not choose 1 or a multiple of a previously chosen divisor. This game models n-dimensional Chomp, where the initial natural number has n prime factors and the dimensions of the Chomp board are given by the exponents of the primes in its prime factorization.

Ordinal Chomp is played on an infinite board with some of its dimensions ordinal numbers: for example a 2 × (ω + 4) bar. A move is to pick any block and remove all blocks with both indices greater than or equal the corresponding indices of the chosen block. The case of ω × ω × ω Chomp is a notable open problem; a $100 reward has been offered for finding a winning first move.

More generally, Chomp can be played on any partially ordered set with a least element. A move is to remove any element along with all larger elements. A player loses by taking the least element.

All varieties of Chomp can also be played without resorting to poison by using the misère play convention: The player who eats the final chocolate block is not poisoned, but simply loses by virtue of being the last player. This is identical to the ordinary rule when playing Chomp on its own, but differs when playing the disjunctive sum of Chomp games, where only the last final chocolate block loses.

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