Strategy (game Theory)

Strategy (game Theory)

A player's strategy, in game theory, refers to one of the options he can choose in a setting where the outcome depends not only on his own actions but on the action of others. A player's strategy will determine the action the player will take at any stage of the game.

The strategy concept is sometimes (wrongly) confused with that of a move. A move is an action taken by a player at some point during the play of a game (e.g., in chess, moving white's Bishop a2 to b3). A strategy on the other hand is a complete algorithm for playing the game, telling a player what to do for every possible situation throughout the game.

A strategy profile (sometimes called a strategy combination) is a set of strategies for each player which fully specifies all actions in a game. A strategy profile must include one and only one strategy for every player.