Found problems: 1385
In a tournament each player played exactly one game against each of the other players. In each game the winner was awarded 1 point, the loser got 0 points, and each of the two players earned 1/2 point if the game was a tie. After the completion of the tournament, it was found that exactly half of the points earned by each player were earned against the ten players with the least number of points. (In particular, each of the ten lowest scoring players earned half of her/his points against the other nine of the ten). What was the total number of players in the tournament?
Let $(a,b)$ be a pair of natural numbers. Henning and Paul play the following game. At the beginning there are two piles of $a$ and $b$ coins respectively. We say that $(a,b)$ is the [i]starting position [/i]of the game. Henning and Paul play with the following rules:
$\bullet$ They take turns alternatively where Henning begins.
$\bullet$ In every step each player either takes a positive integer number of coins from one of the two piles or takes same natural number of coins from both piles.
$\bullet$ The player how take the last coin wins.
Let $A$ be the set of all positive integers like $a$ for which there exists a positive integer $b<a$ such that Paul has a wining strategy for the starting position $(a,b)$. Order the elements of $A$ to construct a sequence $a_1<a_2<a_3<\dots$
$(a)$ Prove that $A$ has infinity many elements.
$(b)$ Prove that the sequence defined by $m_k:=a_{k+1}-a_{k}$ will never become periodic. (This means the sequence $m_{k_0+k}$ will not be periodic for any choice of $k_0$)
Kiko and Ñoño play with a rod of length $2n$ where $n \le 3$ is an integer. Kiko cuts the rod in $ k \le 2n$ pieces of integer lengths. Then Ñoño has to arrange these pieces so that they form a hexagon of equal opposite sides and equal angles. The pieces can not be split and they all have to be used. If Ñoño achieves his goal, he wins, in any other case, Kiko wins. Determine which victory can be secured based on $k$.
Consider $2018$ pairwise crossing circles no three of which are concurrent. These circles subdivide the plane into regions bounded by circular $edges$ that meet at $vertices$. Notice that there are an even number of vertices on each circle. Given the circle, alternately colour the vertices on that circle red and blue. In doing so for each circle, every vertex is coloured twice- once for each of the two circle that cross at that point. If the two colours agree at a vertex, then it is assigned that colour; otherwise, it becomes yellow. Show that, if some circle contains at least $2061$ yellow points, then the vertices of some region are all yellow.
Proposed by [i]India[/i]
Let $n$ be a given positive integer. Sisyphus performs a sequence of turns on a board consisting of $n + 1$ squares in a row, numbered $0$ to $n$ from left to right. Initially, $n$ stones are put into square $0$, and the other squares are empty. At every turn, Sisyphus chooses any nonempty square, say with $k$ stones, takes one of these stones and moves it to the right by at most $k$ squares (the stone should say within the board). Sisyphus' aim is to move all $n$ stones to square $n$.
Prove that Sisyphus cannot reach the aim in less than
\[ \left \lceil \frac{n}{1} \right \rceil + \left \lceil \frac{n}{2} \right \rceil + \left \lceil \frac{n}{3} \right \rceil + \dots + \left \lceil \frac{n}{n} \right \rceil \]
turns. (As usual, $\lceil x \rceil$ stands for the least integer not smaller than $x$. )
The [i]liar's guessing game[/i] is a game played between two players $A$ and $B$. The rules of the game depend on two positive integers $k$ and $n$ which are known to both players.
At the start of the game $A$ chooses integers $x$ and $N$ with $1 \le x \le N.$ Player $A$ keeps $x$ secret, and truthfully tells $N$ to player $B$. Player $B$ now tries to obtain information about $x$ by asking player $A$ questions as follows: each question consists of $B$ specifying an arbitrary set $S$ of positive integers (possibly one specified in some previous question), and asking $A$ whether $x$ belongs to $S$. Player $B$ may ask as many questions as he wishes. After each question, player $A$ must immediately answer it with [i]yes[/i] or [i]no[/i], but is allowed to lie as many times as she wants; the only restriction is that, among any $k+1$ consecutive answers, at least one answer must be truthful.
After $B$ has asked as many questions as he wants, he must specify a set $X$ of at most $n$ positive integers. If $x$ belongs to $X$, then $B$ wins; otherwise, he loses. Prove that:
1. If $n \ge 2^k,$ then $B$ can guarantee a win.
2. For all sufficiently large $k$, there exists an integer $n \ge (1.99)^k$ such that $B$ cannot guarantee a win.
[i]Proposed by David Arthur, Canada[/i]
On a table, there is an empty bag and a chessboard containing exactly one token on each square. Next to the table is a large pile that contains an unlimited supply of tokens. Using only the following types of moves what is the maximum possible number of tokens that can be in the bag?
$\bullet$ Type 1: Choose a non-empty square on the chessboard that is not in the rightmost column. Take a token from this square and place it, along with one token from the pile, on the square immediately to its right.
$\bullet$ Type 2: Choose a non-empty square on the chessboard that is not in the bottommost row. Take a token from this square and place it, along with one token from the pile, on the square immediately below it.
$\bullet$ Type 3: Choose two adjacent non-empty squares. Remove a token from each and put them both into the bag.
Two players play a game involving an $n \times n$ grid of chocolate. Each turn, a player may either eat a piece of chocolate (of any size), or split an existing piece of chocolate into two rectangles along a grid-line. The player who moves last loses. For how many positive integers $n$ less than $1000$ does the second player win?
(Splitting a piece of chocolate refers to taking an $a \times b$ piece, and breaking it into an $(a-c) \times b$ and a $c \times b$ piece, or an $a \times (b-d)$ and an $a \times d$ piece.)
[i]Proposed by Lewis Chen[/i]
Two players, Red and Blue, play in alternating turns on a 10x10 board. Blue goes first. In his turn, a player picks a row or column (not chosen by any player yet) and color all its squares with his own color. If any of these squares was already colored, the new color substitutes the old one.
The game ends after 20 turns, when all rows and column were chosen. Red wins if the number of red squares in the board exceeds at least by 10 the number of blue squares; otherwise Blue wins.
Determine which player has a winning strategy and describe this strategy.
(a) The vertices of a regular $10$-gon are painted in turn black and white. Two people play the following game . Each in turn draws a diagonal connecting two vertices of the same colour . These diagonals must not intersect . The winner is the player who is able to make the last move. Who will win if both players adopt the best strategy?
(b) Answer the same question for the regular $12$-gon .
(V.G. Ivanov)
[b]p1.[/b] Two players play the following game. On the lowest left square of an $8\times 8$ chessboard there is a rook. The first player is allowed to move the rook up or to the right by an arbitrary number of squares. The second player is also allowed to move the rook up or to the right by an arbitrary number of squares. Then the first player is allowed to do this again, and so on. The one who moves the rook to the upper right square wins. Who has a winning strategy?
[b]p2.[/b] In Crocodile Country there are banknotes of $1$ dollar, $10$ dollars, $100$ dollars, and $1,000$ dollars. Is it possible to get 1,000,000 dollars by using $250,000$ banknotes?
[b]p3.[/b] Fifteen positive numbers (not necessarily whole numbers) are placed around the circle. It is known that the sum of every four consecutive numbers is $30$. Prove that each number is less than $15$.
[b]p4.[/b] Donald Duck has $100$ sticks, each of which has length $1$ cm or $3$ cm. Prove that he can break into $2$ pieces no more than one stick, after which he can compose a rectangle using all sticks.
[b]p5.[/b] Three consecutive $2$ digit numbers are written next to each other. It turns out that the resulting $6$ digit number is divisible by $17$. Find all such numbers.
PS. You should use hide for answers. Collected [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c5h2760506p24143309]here[/url].
On the board are written the natural numbers from $1$ to $2001$ inclusive. You have to delete some numbers so that among those that remain undeleted it is impossible to choose two different numbers such that the result of their multiplication is equal to one of the numbers that remain undeleted. What is the minimum number of numbers that must be deleted? For that amount, present an example showing which numbers are erased. Justify why, if fewer numbers are deleted, the desired property is not obtained.
Five players $(A,B,C,D,E)$ take part in a bridge tournament. Every two players must play (as partners) against every other two players. Any two given players can be partners not more than once per a day. What is the least number of days needed for this tournament?
In a heap there are $2021$ stones. Two players $A$ and $B$ play removing stones of the pile, alternately starting with $A$. A valid move for $A$ consists of remove $1, 2$ or $7$ stones. A valid move for B is to remove $1, 3, 4$ or $6$ stones. The player who leaves the pile empty after making a valid move wins. Determine if some of the players have a winning strategy. If such a strategy exists, explain it.
There are 36 contestants in the CMU Puyo-Puyo Tournament, each with distinct skill levels.
The tournament works as follows:
First, all $\binom{36}{2}$ pairings of players are written down on slips of paper and are placed in a hat.
Next, a slip of paper is drawn from the hat, and those two players play a match. It is guaranteed that the player with a higher skill level will always win the match.
We continue drawing slips (without replacement) and playing matches until the results of the match completely determine the order of skill levels of all 36 contestants (i.e. there is only one possible ordering of skill levels consistent with the match results), at which point the tournament immediately finishes.
What is the expected value of the number of matches played before the stopping point is reached?
[i]Proposed by Dilhan Salgado[/i]
All squares of a $ 20\times 20$ table are empty. Misha* and Sasha** in turn put chips in free squares (Misha* begins). The player after whose move there are four chips on the intersection of two rows and two columns wins. Which of the players has a winning strategy?
[i]Proposed by A. Golovanov[/i]
[b]US Name Conversions: [/b]
[i]Misha*: Naoki
Sasha**: Richard[/i]
On the circle, 99 points are marked, dividing this circle into 99 equal arcs. Petya and Vasya play the game, taking turns. Petya goes first; on his first move, he paints in red or blue any marked point. Then each player can paint on his own turn, in red or blue, any uncolored marked point adjacent to the already painted one. Vasya wins, if after painting all points there is an equilateral triangle, all three vertices of which are colored in the same color. Could Petya prevent him?
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
Let $N$ be an odd number, $N\geq 3$. $N$ tennis players take part in a championship. Before starting the championship, a commission puts the players in a row depending on how good they think the players are. During the championship, every player plays with every other player exactly once, and each match has a winner. A match is called [i]suprising[/i] if the winner was rated lower by the commission. At the end of the tournament, players are arranged in a line based on the number of victories they have achieved. In the event of a tie, the commission's initial order is used to decide which player will be higher.
It turns out that the final order is exactly the same as the commission's initial order. What is the maximal number of suprising matches that could have happened.
$A$ 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?
Two players play the following game: there are two heaps of tokens, and they take turns to pick some tokens from them. The winner of the game is the player who takes away the last token. If the number of tokens in the two heaps are $A$ and $B$ at a given moment, the player whose turn it is can take away a number of tokens that is a multiple of $A$ or a multiple of $B$ from one of the heaps.
Find those pair of integers $(k,n)$ for which the second player has a winning strategy, if the initial number of tokens is $k$ in the first heap and $n$ in the second heap.
[i]Proposed by Dömötör Pálvölgyi, Budapest[/i]
Consider $2009$ cards, each having one gold side and one black side, lying on parallel on a long table. Initially all cards show their gold sides. Two player, standing by the same long side of the table, play a game with alternating moves. Each move consists of choosing a block of $50$ consecutive cards, the leftmost of which is showing gold, and turning them all over, so those which showed gold now show black and vice versa. The last player who can make a legal move wins.
(a) Does the game necessarily end?
(b) Does there exist a winning strategy for the starting player?
[i]Proposed by Michael Albert, Richard Guy, New Zealand[/i]
Let $k$ be a positive integer. The organising commitee of a tennis tournament is to schedule the matches for $2k$ players so that every two players play once, each day exactly one match is played, and each player arrives to the tournament site the day of his first match, and departs the day of his last match. For every day a player is present on the tournament, the committee has to pay $1$ coin to the hotel. The organisers want to design the schedule so as to minimise the total cost of all players' stays. Determine this minimum cost.
Let $ n$ be a positive integer, and let $ M\equal{}\left\{ 1,2,...,n\right\}$. Two players take turns at the following game: Each player, at his turn, has to select an element of $ M$ and remove all divisors of this element (including this element itself) from the set $ M$.
[b]a)[/b] Assume that the player who cannot move anymore (because the set $ M$ is empty when it's his move) wins. For which values of $ n$ does the first player have a winning strategy?
[b]b)[/b] Assume that the player who cannot move anymore (because the set $ M$ is empty when it's his move) loses. For which values of $ n$ does the first player have a winning strategy?
Rijul and Rohinee are playing a game on an $n\times n$ board alternating turns, with Rijul going first. In each turn, they fill an unfilled cell with a number from $1,2,\cdots, n^2$ such that no number is used twice. Rijul wins if there is any column such that the sum of all its elements is divisible by $n$. Rohinee wins otherwise. For what positive integers $n$ does he have a winning strategy?
Proposed by Rohan Goyal