<P> Early discussions of examples of two - person games occurred long before the rise of modern , mathematical game theory . The first known discussion of game theory occurred in a letter written by Charles Waldegrave , an active Jacobite , and uncle to James Waldegrave , a British diplomat , in 1713 . In this letter , Waldegrave provides a minimax mixed strategy solution to a two - person version of the card game le Her , and the problem is now known as Waldegrave problem . James Madison made what we now recognize as a game - theoretic analysis of the ways states can be expected to behave under different systems of taxation . In his 1838 Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la théorie des richesses ( Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth ) , Antoine Augustin Cournot considered a duopoly and presents a solution that is a restricted version of the Nash equilibrium . </P>
<P> Early discussions of examples of two - person games occurred long before the rise of modern , mathematical game theory . The first known discussion of game theory occurred in a letter written by Charles Waldegrave , an active Jacobite , and uncle to James Waldegrave , a British diplomat , in 1713 . In this letter , Waldegrave provides a minimax mixed strategy solution to a two - person version of the card game le Her , and the problem is now known as Waldegrave problem . James Madison made what we now recognize as a game - theoretic analysis of the ways states can be expected to behave under different systems of taxation . In his 1838 Recherches sur les principes mathématiques de la théorie des richesses ( Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth ) , Antoine Augustin Cournot considered a duopoly and presents a solution that is a restricted version of the Nash equilibrium . </P>
who gave the concept of game theory first
who gave the concept of game theory first
Charles Waldegrave
Charles Waldegrave