Phutball Endgames are Hard

We show that, in John Conway's board game Phutball (or Philosopher's Football), it is NP-complete to determine whether the current player has a move that immediately wins the game. In contrast, the similar problems of determining whether there is an immediately winning move in checkers, or a move that kings a man, are both solvable in polynomial time.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2000
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, David Eppstein
• Keywords: Board Game Phutball, CORR 2000, Current Player, Education, John Conway