Quantitative Analysis for Management, 13/e

M4.2 The Minimax Criterion

For two-person, zero-sum games, there is a logical approach to finding the solution: In a zero-sum game, each person should choose the strategy that minimizes the maximum loss, called the minimax criterion. This is identical to maximizing one’s minimum gains, so for one player, this could be called the maximin criterion.

A player using the minimax criterion will select the strategy that minimizes the maximum possible loss.

Let us use the example in Table M4.1 to illustrate the minimax criterion. This is a two-person, zero-sum game with the strategies for player Y given as the columns of the table. The values are gains for player X and losses for player Y. Player Y is looking at a maximum loss of 3 if strategy $Y_1$