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February 27, 20260 citationsOpen Access

Algorithm and Strategy Construction for Sure-Almost-Sure Stochastic Parity Games

LDLaurent DoyenSGShibashis Guha

Key Points

  • The aim is to develop an algorithm for synthesizing winning strategies in turn-based stochastic games with combined parity conditions.
  • Conduct a theoretical analysis of stochastic two-player games with sure and almost-sure parity conditions.
  • Develop a recursive algorithm to characterize the winning region.
  • Examine special classes of the problem by fixing the index of parity conditions.
  • Demonstrated the necessity of infinite-memory strategies for general cases while memoryless strategies suffice for opponents.
  • Introduced a novel algorithm that avoids exponential enumeration of strategies.
  • Derived new complexity and memory bounds for specific setups in the problem.

Abstract

We consider turn-based stochastic two-player games with a combination of a parity condition that must hold surely, that is in all possible outcomes, and of a parity condition that must hold almost-surely, that is with probability 1. The problem of deciding the existence of a winning strategy in such games is central in the framework of synthesis beyond worst-case where a hard requirement that must hold surely is combined with a softer requirement. Recent works showed that the problem is coNP-complete, and infinite-memory strategies are necessary in general, even in one-player games (i.e., Markov decision processes). However, memoryless strategies are sufficient for the opponent player. Despite these comprehensive results, the known algorithmic solution enumerates all memoryless strategies of the opponent, which is exponential in all cases, and does not construct a winning strategy when one exists. We present a recursive algorithm, based on a characterisation of the winning region, that gives a deeper insight into the problem. In particular, we show how to construct a winning strategy to achieve the combination of sure and almost-sure parity, and we derive new complexity and memory bounds for special classes of the problem, defined by fixing the index of either of the two parity conditions.

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Cite This Study

Doyen et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69a1350eed1d949a99abe8e7https://doi.org/10.4230/lipics.stacs.2026.34
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