The subject of this paper is the expressive power of monadic second-order logic over two-dimensional grids. We give a new, self-contained game-theoretical proof of the nonexpressibility results of Matz and Thomas. As we show, this implies the strictness of the monadic second-order quantifier alternation hierarchy over grids.
['Nicole Schweikardt']
The Monadic Quantifier Alternation Hierarchy over Grids and Pictures