Found problems: 83
2019 Thailand TST, 1
There are $2^{2018}$ positions on a circle numbered from $1$ to $2^{2018}$ in a clockwise manner. Initially, two white marbles are placed at positions $2018$ and $2019$. Before the game starts, Ping chooses to place either a black marble or a white marble at each remaining position. At the start of the game, Ping is given an integer $n$ ($0\leq n\leq 2018$) and two marbles, one black and one white. He will then move around the circle, starting at position $2n$ and moving clockwise by $2n$ positions at a time. At the starting position and each position he reaches, Ping must switch the marble at that position with a marble of the other color he carries. If he cannot do so at any position, he loses the game. Is there a way to place the $2^{2018}-2$ remaining marbles so that Ping will never lose the game regardless of the number $n$ and the number of rounds he moves around the circle?
2020 Serbia National Math Olympiad, 6
We are given a natural number $k$. Let us consider the following game on an infinite onedimensional board. At the start of the game, we distrubute $n$ coins on the fields of the given board (one field can have multiple coins on itself). After that, we have two choices for the following moves:
$(i)$ We choose two nonempty fields next to each other, and we transfer all the coins from one of the fields to the other.
$(ii)$ We choose a field with at least $2$ coins on it, and we transfer one coin from the chosen field to the $k-\mathrm{th}$ field on the left , and one coin from the chosen field to the $k-\mathrm{th}$ field on the right.
$\mathbf{(a)}$ If $n\leq k+1$, prove that we can play only finitely many moves.
$\mathbf{(b)}$ For which values of $k$ we can choose a natural number $n$ and distribute $n$ coins on the given board such that we can play infinitely many moves.
2015 ITAMO, 6
Ada and Charles play the following game:at the beginning, an integer n>1 is written on the blackboard.In turn, Ada and Charles remove the number k that they find on the blackboard.In turn Ad and Charles remove the number k that they find on the blackboard and they replace it :
1 -either with a positive divisor k different from 1 and k
2- or with k+1
At the beginning each players have a thousand points each.When a player choses move 1, he/she gains one point;when a player choses move 2, he/she loses one point.The game ends when one of the tho players is left with zero points and this player loses the game.Ada moves first.For what values Chares has a winning strategy?
2019 Canada National Olympiad, 5
A 2-player game is played on $n\geq 3$ points, where no 3 points are collinear. Each move consists of selecting 2 of the points and drawing a new line segment connecting them. The first player to draw a line segment that creates an odd cycle loses. (An odd cycle must have all its vertices among the $n$ points from the start, so the vertices of the cycle cannot be the intersections of the lines drawn.) Find all $n$ such that the player to move first wins.
2020 Brazil Undergrad MO, Problem 5
Let $N$ a positive integer.
In a spaceship there are $2 \cdot N$ people, and each two of them are friends or foes (both relationships are symmetric). Two aliens play a game as follows:
1) The first alien chooses any person as she wishes.
2) Thenceforth, alternately, each alien chooses one person not chosen before such that the person chosen on each turn be a friend of the person chosen on the previous turn.
3) The alien that can't play in her turn loses.
Prove that second player has a winning strategy [i]if, and only if[/i], the $2 \cdot N$ people can be divided in $N$ pairs in such a way that two people in the same pair are friends.
2024 Portugal MO, 6
Alexandre and Bernado are playing the following game. At the beginning, there are $n$ balls in a bag. At first turn, Alexandre can take one ball from the bag; at second turn, Bernado can take one or two balls from the bag, and so on. So they take turns and in $k$ turn, they can take a number of balls from $1$ to $k$. Wins the one who makes the bag empty.
For each value of $n$, find who has the winning strategy.
2022 Iran Team Selection Test, 6
Let $m,n$ and $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_m$ be arbitrary positive integers. Ali and Mohammad Play the following game. At each step, Ali chooses $b_1,b_2,\dots,b_m \in \mathbb{N}$ and then Mohammad chosses a positive integers $s$ and obtains a new sequence $\{c_i=a_i+b_{i+s}\}_{i=1}^m$, where $$b_{m+1}=b_1,\ b_{m+2}=b_2, \dots,\ b_{m+s}=b_s$$ The goal of Ali is to make all the numbers divisible by $n$ in a finite number of steps. FInd all positive integers $m$ and $n$ such that Ali has a winning strategy, no matter how the initial values $a_1, a_2,\dots,a_m$ are.
[hide=clarification] after we create the $c_i$ s, this sequence becomes the sequence that we continue playing on, as in it is our 'new' $a_i$[/hide]
Proposed by Shayan Gholami
2019 Ecuador NMO (OMEC), 4
Let $n> 1$ be a positive integer. Danielle chooses a number $N$ of $n$ digits but does not tell her students and they must find the sum of the digits of $N$. To achieve this, each student chooses and says once a number of $n$ digits to Danielle and she tells how many digits are in the correct location compared with $N$. Find the minimum number of students that must be in the class to ensure that students have a strategy to correctly find the sum of the digits of $N$ in any case and show a strategy in that case.
2023 Turkey Olympic Revenge, 5
There are $10$ cups, each having $10$ pebbles in them. Two players $A$ and $B$ play a game, repeating the following in order each move:
$\bullet$ $B$ takes one pebble from each cup and redistributes them as $A$ wishes.
$\bullet$ After $B$ distributes the pebbles, he tells how many pebbles are in each cup to $A$. Then $B$ destroys all the cups having no pebbles.
$\bullet$ $B$ switches the places of two cups without telling $A$.
After finitely many moves, $A$ can guarantee that $n$ cups are destroyed. Find the maximum possible value of $n$.
(Note that $A$ doesn't see the cups while playing.)
[i]Proposed by Emre Osman[/i]
2024 Auckland Mathematical Olympiad, 6
There are $50$ coins in a row; each coin has a value. Two people are playing a game alternating moves. In one move a player can take either the leftmost or the rightmost coin. Who can always accumulate coins whose total value is at least the value of the coins of the opponent?
2025 Alborz Mathematical Olympiad, P2
In the Jordan Building (the Olympiad building of High School Mandegar Alborz), Ali and Khosro are playing a game. First, Ali selects 2025 points on the plane such that no three points are collinear and no four points are concyclic. Then, Khosro selects a point, followed by Ali selecting another point, and then Khosro selects one more point. The circumcircle of these three points is drawn, and the number of points inside the circle is denoted by \( t \). If Khosro's goal is to maximize \( t \) and Ali's goal is to minimize \( t \), and both play optimally, determine the value of \( t \).
Proposed by Reza Tahernejad Karizi
2017 German National Olympiad, 3
General Tilly and the Duke of Wallenstein play "Divide and rule!" (Divide et impera!).
To this end, they arrange $N$ tin soldiers in $M$ companies and command them by turns.
Both of them must give a command and execute it in their turn.
Only two commands are possible: The command "[i]Divide![/i]" chooses one company and divides it into two companies, where the commander is free to choose their size, the only condition being that both companies must contain at least one tin soldier.
On the other hand, the command "[i]Rule![/i]" removes exactly one tin soldier from each company.
The game is lost if in your turn you can't give a command without losing a company. Wallenstein starts to command.
a) Can he force Tilly to lose if they start with $7$ companies of $7$ tin soldiers each?
b) Who loses if they start with $M \ge 1$ companies consisting of $n_1 \ge 1, n_2 \ge 1, \dotsc, n_M \ge 1$ $(n_1+n_2+\dotsc+n_M=N)$ tin soldiers?
2022 Lusophon Mathematical Olympiad, 2
Anselmo and Claudio are playing alternatively a game with fruits in a box. The box initially has $32$ fruits. Anselmo plays first and each turn consists of taking away $1$, $2$ or $3$ fruits from the box or taking away $\frac{2}{3}$ of the fruits from the box (this is only possible when the number of the fruits left in the box is a multiple of $3$). The player that takes away the last fruit from the box wins. Which of these two players has a winning strategy? How should that player play in order to win?
2020 Kosovo National Mathematical Olympiad, 1
Two players, Agon and Besa, choose a number from the set $\{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8\}$, in turns, until no number is left. Then, each player sums all the numbers that he has chosen. We say that a player wins if the sum of his chosen numbers is a prime and the sum of the numbers that his opponent has chosen is composite. In the contrary, the game ends in a draw. Agon starts first. Does there exist a winning strategy for any of the players?
2016 Bosnia and Herzegovina Team Selection Test, 2
Let $n$ be a positive integer and let $t$ be an integer. $n$ distinct integers are written on a table. Bob, sitting in a room nearby, wants to know whether there exist some of these numbers such that their sum is equal to $t$. Alice is standing in front of the table and she wants to help him. At the beginning, she tells him only the initial sum of all numbers on the table. After that, in every move he says one of the $4$ sentences:
$i.$ Is there a number on the table equal to $k$?
$ii.$ If a number $k$ exists on the table, erase him.
$iii.$ If a number $k$ does not exist on the table, add him.
$iv.$ Do the numbers written on the table can be arranged in two sets with equal sum of elements?
On these questions Alice answers yes or no, and the operations he says to her she does (if it is possible) and does not tell him did she do it. Prove that in less than $3n$ moves, Bob can find out whether there exist numbers initially written on the board such that their sum is equal to $t$
2019 Thailand TST, 2
Let $n \geq 3$ be an integer. Two players play a game on an empty graph with $n + 1$ vertices, consisting of the vertices of a regular n-gon and its center. They alternately select a vertex of the n-gon and draw an edge (that has not been drawn) to an adjacent vertex on the n-gon or to the center of the n-gon. The player who first makes the graph connected wins. Between the player who goes first and the player who goes second, who has a winning strategy?
[i]Note: an empty graph is a graph with no edges.[/i]
2019 ELMO Shortlist, C1
Elmo and Elmo's clone are playing a game. Initially, $n\geq 3$ points are given on a circle. On a player's turn, that player must draw a triangle using three unused points as vertices, without creating any crossing edges. The first player who cannot move loses. If Elmo's clone goes first and players alternate turns, who wins? (Your answer may be in terms of $n$.)
[i]Proposed by Milan Haiman[/i]
2018 Iran Team Selection Test, 2
Mojtaba and Hooman are playing a game. Initially Mojtaba draws $2018$ vectors with zero sum. Then in each turn, starting with Mojtaba, the player takes a vector and puts it on the plane. After the first move, the players must put their vector next to the previous vector (the beginning of the vector must lie on the end of the previous vector).
At last, there will be a closed polygon. If this polygon is not self-intersecting, Mojtaba wins. Otherwise Hooman. Who has the winning strategy?
[i]Proposed by Mahyar Sefidgaran, Jafar Namdar [/i]
2020 Serbian Mathematical Olympiad, Problem 6
We are given a natural number $k$. Let us consider the following game on an infinite onedimensional board. At the start of the game, we distrubute $n$ coins on the fields of the given board (one field can have multiple coins on itself). After that, we have two choices for the following moves:
$(i)$ We choose two nonempty fields next to each other, and we transfer all the coins from one of the fields to the other.
$(ii)$ We choose a field with at least $2$ coins on it, and we transfer one coin from the chosen field to the $k-\mathrm{th}$ field on the left , and one coin from the chosen field to the $k-\mathrm{th}$ field on the right.
$\mathbf{(a)}$ If $n\leq k+1$, prove that we can play only finitely many moves.
$\mathbf{(b)}$ For which values of $k$ we can choose a natural number $n$ and distribute $n$ coins on the given board such that we can play infinitely many moves.
2020 Cono Sur Olympiad, 1
Ari and Beri play a game using a deck of $2020$ cards with exactly one card with each number from $1$ to $2020$. Ari gets a card with a number $a$ and removes it from the deck. Beri sees the card, chooses another card from the deck with a number $b$ and removes it from the deck. Then Beri writes on the board exactly one of the trinomials $x^2-ax+b$ or $x^2-bx+a$ from his choice. This process continues until no cards are left on the deck. If at the end of the game every trinomial written on the board has integer solutions, Beri wins. Otherwise, Ari wins. Prove that Beri can always win, no matter how Ari plays.
2017 Thailand TSTST, 6
$A$ and $B$ plays a game, with $A$ choosing a positive integer $n \in \{1, 2, \dots, 1001\} = S$. $B$ must guess the value of $n$ by choosing several subsets of $S$, then $A$ will tell $B$ how many subsets $n$ is in. $B$ will do this three times selecting $k_1, k_2$ then $k_3$ subsets of $S$ each.
What is the least value of $k_1 + k_2 + k_3$ such that $B$ has a strategy to correctly guess the value of $n$ no matter what $A$ chooses?
2022 Iran Team Selection Test, 6
Let $m,n$ and $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_m$ be arbitrary positive integers. Ali and Mohammad Play the following game. At each step, Ali chooses $b_1,b_2,\dots,b_m \in \mathbb{N}$ and then Mohammad chosses a positive integers $s$ and obtains a new sequence $\{c_i=a_i+b_{i+s}\}_{i=1}^m$, where $$b_{m+1}=b_1,\ b_{m+2}=b_2, \dots,\ b_{m+s}=b_s$$ The goal of Ali is to make all the numbers divisible by $n$ in a finite number of steps. FInd all positive integers $m$ and $n$ such that Ali has a winning strategy, no matter how the initial values $a_1, a_2,\dots,a_m$ are.
[hide=clarification] after we create the $c_i$ s, this sequence becomes the sequence that we continue playing on, as in it is our 'new' $a_i$[/hide]
Proposed by Shayan Gholami
1999 All-Russian Olympiad, 1
There are three empty jugs on a table. Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit, and Piglet put walnuts in the jugs one by one. They play successively, with the initial determined by a draw. Thereby Winnie the Pooh plays either in the first or second jug, Rabbit in the second or third, and Piglet in the first or third. The player after whose move there are exactly 1999 walnuts loses the games. Show that Winnie the Pooh and Piglet can cooperate so as to make Rabbit lose.
2024 Tuymaada Olympiad, 2
Chip and Dale play on a $100 \times 100$ table. In the beginning, a chess king stands in the upper left corner of the table. At each move the king is moved one square right, down or right-down diagonally. A player cannot move in the direction used by his opponent in the previous move. The players move in turn, Chip begins. The player that cannot move loses. Which player has a winning strategy?
2019 ELMO Shortlist, C1
Elmo and Elmo's clone are playing a game. Initially, $n\geq 3$ points are given on a circle. On a player's turn, that player must draw a triangle using three unused points as vertices, without creating any crossing edges. The first player who cannot move loses. If Elmo's clone goes first and players alternate turns, who wins? (Your answer may be in terms of $n$.)
[i]Proposed by Milan Haiman[/i]