A Non-Terminating Game of Beggar-My-Neighbor
We demonstrate the existence of a non-terminating game of Beggar-My-Neighbor. We detail the method for constructing this game and identify a cyclical structure of 62 tricks that is reached by 30 distinct starting hands. We further present a short history of the search for this solution since the problem was posed, and a record of previously found longest terminating games. The existence of this non-terminating game provides a solution to a long-standing question which John H. Conway called an ‘anti-Hilbert problem.’
Authors
- Philip M. Anderson
- Richard P. Mann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0701-1274)
- Michael Kleber
- Samuel G. Williams
- W.J. Rucklidge
- Nicolas Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4161-985X)
- Brayden Casella
- Reed Nessler
Institutions
- Twitter (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Mathematical Monthly
- Published
- 2025-10-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2025.2558484
- Primary Topic
- Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00