The succinctness of first-order logic over modal logic via a formula size game

We propose a new version of formula size game for modal logic. The game characterizes the equivalence of pointed Kripke-models up to formulas of given numbers of modal operators and binary connectives. Our game is similar to the well-known Adler-Immerman game. However, due to a crucial difference in the definition of positions of the game, its winning condition is simpler, and the second player (duplicator) does not have a trivial optimal strategy. Thus, unlike the Adler-Immerman game, our game is a genuine two-person game. We illustrate the use of the game by proving a nonelementary succinctness gap between bisimulation invariant first-order logic FO and (basic) modal logic ML.