This website contains problems from math contests. Problems and corresponding tags were obtained from the Art of Problem Solving website.

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Found problems: 1385

Stekel and Prick play a game on an $ m \times n$ board, where $m$ and $n$ are positive are integers. They alternate turns, with Stekel starting. Spine bets on his turn, he always takes a pawn on a square where there is no pawn yet. Prick does his turn the same, but his pawn must always come into a square adjacent to the square that Spike just placed a pawn in on his previous turn. Prick wins like the whole board is full of pawns. Spike wins if Prik can no longer move a pawn on his turn, while there is still at least one empty square on the board. Determine for all pairs $(m, n)$ who has a winning strategy.
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Alice and Bob play the following game. First, Alice picks $n + 1$ subsets $A_1,...,A_{n+1}$ of $\{1,... ,2^n\}$ each of size $2^{n-1}$. Second, Bob picks $n + 1$ arbitrary integers $a_1,...,a_{n+1}$. Finally, Alice picks an integer $t$. Bob wins if there exists an integer $1 \le i \le n + 1$ and $s \in A_i$ such that $s + a_i \equiv t$ (mod $2^n$). Otherwise, Alice wins. Find all values of $n$ where Alice has a winning strategy.
Lamija and Faris are playing the following game. Cards, which are numerated from $1$ to $100$, are placed one next to other, starting from $1$ to $100$. Now Faris picks every $7$th card, and after that every card which contains number $7$. After that Lamija picks from remaining cards ones divisible with $5$, and after that cards which contain number $5$. Who will have more cards and how many ? How would game end, if Lamija started with "$5$ rule" and Faris continues with "$7$ rule"?
Andrey and Sasha play the game, making moves alternate. On his turn, Andrey marks on the plane an arbitrary point that has not yet been marked. After that, Sasha colors this point in one of two colors: white and black. Sasha wins if after his move it is impossible to draw a line such that all white points lie in one half-plane, while all black points lie in another half-plane with respect to this line. [b]a)[/b] Prove that Andrey can make moves in such a way that Sasha will never win. [b]b)[/b] Suppose that Andrey can mark only integer points on the Cartesian plane. Can Sasha guarantee himself a win regardless of Andrey's moves? [i](N. Naradzetski)[/i]
At the start of a game there are three boxes with $2008, 2009$ and $2010$ game pieces Anja and Bernd play in turns according to the following rule: [i]When it is your turn, select two boxes, empty them and then distribute the pieces from the third box to the three boxes, such that no box may remain empty.If you can no longer complete a turn, you have lost. [/i] Who has a winning strategy when Anja starts?
Players $A$ and $B$ play the following game. Each of them throws a dice, and if the outcomes are $x$ and $y$ respectively, a list of all two digit numbers $10a + b$ with $a,b\in \{1,..,6\}$ and $10a + b \le 10x + y$ is created. Then the players alternately reduce the list by replacing a pair of numbers in the list by their absolute difference, until only one number remains. If the remaining number is of the same parity as the outcome of $A$’s throw, then $A$ is proclaimed the winner. What is the probability that $A$ wins the game?
Five identical empty buckets of $2$-liter capacity stand at the vertices of a regular pentagon. Cinderella and her wicked Stepmother go through a sequence of rounds: At the beginning of every round, the Stepmother takes one liter of water from the nearby river and distributes it arbitrarily over the five buckets. Then Cinderella chooses a pair of neighbouring buckets, empties them to the river and puts them back. Then the next round begins. The Stepmother goal's is to make one of these buckets overflow. Cinderella's goal is to prevent this. Can the wicked Stepmother enforce a bucket overflow? [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]
There are $2005$ players in a chess tournament played a game. Every pair of players played a game against each other. At the end of the tournament, it turned out that if two players $A$ and $B$ drew the game between them, then every other player either lost to $A$ or to $B$. Suppose that there are at least two draws in the tournament. Prove that all players can be lined up in a single file from left to right in the such a way that every play won the game against the person immediately to his right.
Julian and Johan are playing a game with an even number of cards, say $2n$ cards, ($n \in Z_{>0}$). Every card is marked with a positive integer. The cards are shuffled and are arranged in a row, in such a way that the numbers are visible. The two players take turns picking cards. During a turn, a player can pick either the rightmost or the leftmost card. Johan is the first player to pick a card (meaning Julian will have to take the last card). Now, a player’s score is the sum of the numbers on the cards that player acquired during the game. Prove that Johan can always get a score that is at least as high as Julian’s.
Rosa and Sara play with a triangle $ABC$, right at $B$. Rosa begins by marking two interior points of the hypotenuse $AC$, then Sara marks an interior point of the hypotenuse $AC$ different from those of Rosa. Then, from these three points the perpendiculars to the sides $AB$ and $BC$ are drawn, forming the following figure. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/9/9/c964bbacc4a5960bee170865cc43902410e504.png[/img] Sara wins if the area of the shaded surface is equal to the area of the unshaded surface, in other case wins Rosa. Determine who of the two has a winning strategy.
On a round table, $n$ bowls are arranged in a circle. Anja walks around the table clockwise, placing marbles in the bowls according to the following rule: She places a marble in any first bowl, then goes one bowl further and puts a marble in there. Then she goes two shells before putting another marble, then she goes three shells, etc. If there is at least one marble in each shell, she stops. For which $n$ does this occur?
A point $P$ is interior to the triangle $ABC$ such that $AP \perp BC$. Let $E, F$ be the projections of $CA, AB$. Suppose that the tangents at $E, F$ of the circumcircle of triangle $AEF$ meets at a point on $BC$. Prove that $P$ is the orthocenter of triangle $ABC$. Do Thanh Son, High School of Natural Sciences, National University, Hanoi
On a table are given $1999$ red candies and $6661$ yellow candies. The candies are indistinguishable due to the same packing. A gourmet applies the following procedure as long as it is possible: (i) He picks any of the remaining candies, notes its color, eats it and goes to (ii). (ii) He picks any of the remaining candies, and notes its color: if it is the same as the color of the last eaten candy, eats it and goes to (ii); otherwise returns it upon repacking and goes to (i). Prove that all the candies will be eaten and find the probability that the last eaten candy will be red.
In an $m\times n$ rectangular chessboard,there is a stone in the lower leftmost square. Two persons A,B move the stone alternately. In each step one can move the stone upward or rightward any number of squares. The one who moves it into the upper rightmost square wins. Find all $(m,n)$ such that the first person has a winning strategy.
Initially, on the lower left and right corner of a $2018\times 2018$ board, there're two horses, red and blue, respectively. $A$ and $B$ alternatively play their turn, $A$ start first. Each turn consist of moving their horse ($A$-red, and $B$-blue) by, simultaneously, $20$ cells respect to one coordinate, and $17$ cells respect to the other; while preserving the rule that the horse can't occupied the cell that ever occupied by any horses in the game. The player who can't make the move loss, who has the winning strategy?
Alice and Bob play a game with a string of $2015$ pearls. In each move, one player cuts the string between two pearls and the other player chooses one of the resulting parts of the string while the other part is discarded. In the first move, Alice cuts the string, thereafter, the players take turns. A player loses if he or she obtains a string with a single pearl such that no more cut is possible. Who of the two players does have a winning strategy? (Theresia Eisenkölbl)
Written on a blackboard is the polynomial $x^2+x+2014$. Calvin and Hobbes take turns alternately (starting with Calvin) in the following game. At his turn, Calvin should either increase or decrease the coefficient of $x$ by $1$. And at this turn, Hobbes should either increase or decrease the constant coefficient by $1$. Calvin wins if at any point of time the polynomial on the blackboard at that instant has integer roots. Prove that Calvin has a winning stratergy.
Chip and Dale play the following game. Chip starts by splitting $1001$ nuts between three piles, so Dale can see it. In response, Dale chooses some number $N$ from $1$ to $1001$. Then Chip moves nuts from the piles he prepared to a new (fourth) pile until there will be exactly $N$ nuts in any one or more piles. When Chip accomplishes his task, Dale gets an exact amount of nuts that Chip moved. What is the maximal number of nuts that Dale can get for sure, no matter how Chip acts? (Naturally, Dale wants to get as many nuts as possible, while Chip wants to lose as little as possible).
Numbers $1,\frac12,\frac13,\ldots,\frac1{2001}$ are written on a blackboard. A student erases two numbers $x,y$ and writes down the number $x+y+xy$ instead. Determine the number that will be written on the board after $2000$ such operations.
Tanya and Serezha take turns putting chips in empty squares of a chessboard. Tanya starts with a chip in an arbitrary square. At every next move, Serezha must put a chip in the column where Tanya put her last chip, while Tanya must put a chip in the row where Serezha put his last chip. The player who cannot make a move loses. Which of the players has a winning strategy? [i]Proposed by A. Golovanov[/i]
Two players $A$ and $B$ play a game with a ball and $n$ boxes placed onto the vertices of a regular $n$-gon where $n$ is a positive integer. Initially, the ball is hidden in a box by player $A$. At each step, $B$ chooses a box, then player $A$ says the distance of the ball to the selected box to player $B$ and moves the ball to an adjacent box. If $B$ finds the ball, then $B$ wins. Find the least number of steps for which $B$ can guarantee to win.
Let ${k}$ be a fi xed positive integer. A finite sequence of integers ${x_1,x_2, ..., x_n}$ is written on a blackboard. Pepa and Geoff are playing a game that proceeds in rounds as follows. - In each round, Pepa first partitions the sequence that is currently on the blackboard into two or more contiguous subsequences (that is, consisting of numbers appearing consecutively). However, if the number of these subsequences is larger than ${2}$, then the sum of numbers in each of them has to be divisible by ${k}$. - Then Geoff selects one of the subsequences that Pepa has formed and wipes all the other subsequences from the blackboard. The game fi nishes once there is only one number left on the board. Prove that Pepa may choose his moves so that independently of the moves of Geoff, the game fi nishes after at most ${3k}$ rounds. (Poland)
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Aslı and Zehra are playing a game on an $n\times n$ grid. Initially, $10n^2$ stones are placed on some of the unit squares of this grid. On each move (starting with Aslı), Aslı chooses a row or a column that contains at least two squares with different numbers of stones, and Zehra redistributes the stones in that row or column so that after redistribution, the difference in the number of stones between any two squares in that row or column is at most one. Furthermore, this move must change the number of stones in at least one square. For which values of $n$, regardless of the initial placement of the stones, can Aslı guarantee that every square ends up with the same number of stones?
A chocolate bar in the shape of an equilateral triangle with side of the length $n$, consists of triangular chips with sides of the length $1$, parallel to sides of the bar. Two players take turns eating up the chocolate. Each player breaks off a triangular piece (along one of the lines), eats it up and passes leftovers to the other player (as long as bar contains more than one chip, the player is not allowed to eat it completely). A player who has no move or leaves exactly one chip to the opponent, loses. For each $n$, find who has a winning strategy.
There are $c$ red, $p$ blue, and $b$ white balls on a table. Two players $A$ and $B$ play a game by alternately making moves. In every move, a player takes two or three balls from the table. Player $A$ begins. A player wins if after his/her move at least one of the three colors no longer exists among the balls remaining on the table. For which values of $c,p,b$ does player $A$ have a winning strategy?