Alina and Bogdan play a game on a $2\times n$ rectangular grid ($n\ge 2$) whose sides of length $2$ are glued together to form a cylinder. Alternating moves, each player cuts out a unit square of the grid. A player loses if his/her move causes the grid to lose circular connection (two unit squares that only touch at a corner are considered to be disconnected). Suppose Alina makes the first move. Which player has a winning strategy?

Three players $A,B$ and $C$ play a game with three cards and on each of these $3$ cards it is written a positive integer, all $3$ numbers are different. A game consists of shuffling the cards, giving each player a card and each player is attributed a number of points equal to the number written on the card and then they give the cards back. After a number $(\geq 2)$ of games we find out that A has $20$ points, $B$ has $10$ points and $C$ has $9$ points. We also know that in the last game B had the card with the biggest number. Who had in the first game the card with the second value (this means the middle card concerning its value).

We are given a row of $n\geq7$ tiles. In the leftmost 3 tiles, there is a white piece each, and in the rightmost 3 tiles, there is a black piece each. The white and black players play in turns (the white starts). In each move, a player may take a piece of their color, and move it to an adjacent tile, so long as it's not occupied by a piece of the [u]same color[/u]. If the new tile is empty, nothing happens. If the tile is occupied by a piece of the [u]opposite color[/u], both pieces are destroyed (both white and black). The player who destroys the last two pieces wins the game. Which player has a winning strategy, and what is it? (The answer may depend on $n$)

There is a set of cards with numbers from $1$ to $30$ (which may be repeated) . Each student takes one such card. The teacher can perform the following operation: He reads a list of such numbers (possibly only one) and then asks the students to raise an arm if their number was in this list. How many times must he perform such an operation in order to determine the number on each student 's card? (Indicate the number of operations and prove that it is minimal . Note that there are not necessarily 30 students.)

Two players play the following game on a square of $N \times N$ squares. They color one square in turn so that no two colored squares are on the same diagonal. A player who cannot make a move loses. For what values of $N$ does the first player have a winning strategy?

Positive integers $n$, $k>1$ are given. Pasha and Vova play a game on a board $n\times k$. Pasha begins, and further they alternate the following moves. On each move a player should place a border of length 1 between two adjacent cells. The player loses if after his move there is no way from the bottom left cell to the top right without crossing any order. Determine who of the players has a winning strategy.

Alina and Bogdan play the following game. They have a heap and $330$ stones in it. They take turns. In one turn it is allowed to take from the heap exactly $1$, exactly $n$ or exactly $m$ stones. The player who takes the last stone wins. Before the beginning Alina says the number $n$, ($1 < n < 10$). After that Bogdan says the number $m$, ($m \ne n, 1 < m < 10$). Alina goes first. Which of the two players has a winning strategy? What if initially there are 2018 stones in the heap? adapted from a Belarus Olympiad problem

A game is played by two contestants A and B, each one having ten chips numbered from 1 to 10. The board of game consists of two numbered rows, from 1 to 1492 on the first row and from 1 to 1989 on the second. At the $n$-th turn, $n=1,2,\ldots,10$, A puts his chip numbered $n$ in any empty cell, and B puts his chip numbered $n$ in any empty cell on the row not containing the chip numbered $n$ from A. B wins the game if, after the 10th turn, both rows show the numbers of the chips in the same relative order. Otherwise, A wins. [list=a] [*] Which player has a winning strategy? [*] Suppose now both players has $k$ chips numbered 1 to $k$. Which player has a winning strategy? [*] Suppose further the rows are the set $\mathbb{Q}$ of rationals and the set $\mathbb{Z}$ of integers. Which player has a winning strategy? [/list]

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]

With $2018$ points, a network composed of hexagons is formed as a sample the figure: [asy] unitsize(1 cm); int i; path hex = dir(30)--(0,1)--dir(150)--dir(210)--(0,-1)--dir(330)--cycle; draw(hex); draw(shift((sqrt(3),0))*(hex)); draw(shift((2*sqrt(3),0))*(hex)); draw(shift((4*sqrt(3),0))*(hex)); draw(shift((5*sqrt(3),0))*(hex)); dot((3*sqrt(3) - 0.3,0)); dot((3*sqrt(3),0)); dot((3*sqrt(3) + 0.3,0)); dot(dir(150)); dot(dir(210)); for (i = 0; i <= 5; ++i) { if (i != 3) { dot((0,1) + i*(sqrt(3),0)); dot(dir(30) + i*(sqrt(3),0)); dot(dir(330) + i*(sqrt(3),0)); dot((0,-1) + i*(sqrt(3),0)); } } dot(dir(150) + 4*(sqrt(3),0)); dot(dir(210) + 4*(sqrt(3),0)); [/asy] A bee and a fly play the following game: initially the bee chooses one of the $2018$ dots and paints it red, then the fly chooses one of the $2017$ unpainted dots and paint it blue. Then the bee chooses an unpainted point and paints it red and then the fly chooses an unpainted one and paints it blue and so they alternate. If at the end of the game there is an equilateral triangle with red vertices, the bee wins, otherwise Otherwise the fly wins. Determine which of the two insects has a winning strategy.

SQUARING OFF: Master Chief and Samus Aran take turns firing rockets at one another from across the Cartesian plane. Master Chief’s movement is restricted to lattice points within the $10\times 10$ square with vertices $(0,0)$, $(0,10)$, $(10,0)$, and $(10,10)$, while Samus Aran’s movement is restricted to lattice points inside the $10\times 10$ square with vertices $(0,0)$, $(-10,0)$, $(0,-10)$, and $(-10,-10)$. Neither player can be located on or beyond the border of his or her square. Both players randomly choose a lattice point at which they begin the game, and do not move the rest of the game (until either they are killed or kill the other player). Each player’s turn consists of firing a rocket, targeted at a specific undestroyed lattice point inside the border of the opponent’s movement square, which hits immediately. When a rocket hits its intended lattice point, it explodes, destroying the surrounding $3\times 3$ square ($8$ additional adjacent lattice points). The game ends when one player is hit by a rocket (when the player is located within the $3\times 3$ grid hit by a rocket). If the highest possible probability that Samus Aran wins the game in three turns or less, assuming Master Chief goes first, is expressed as $a/b$, where $a$ and $b$ are relatively prime integers, find $a+b$.

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 $x$. )

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?

Soma has a tower of $63$ bricks , consisting of $6$ levels. On the $k$-th level from the top, there are $2k-1$ bricks (where $k = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6$), and every brick which is not on the lowest level lies on precisely $2$ smaller bricks (which lie one level below) - see the figure. Soma takes away $7$ bricks from the tower, one by one. He can only remove a brick if there is no brick lying on it. In how many ways can he do this, if the order of removals is considered as well? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/b/6/4b0ce36df21fba89708dd5897c43a077d86b5e.png[/img]

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Two players $A$ and $B$ play a game in which they take turns choosing positive integers $k \le n$. The rules of the game are: (i) A player cannot choose a number that has been chosen by either player on any previous turn. (ii) A player cannot choose a number consecutive to any of those the player has already chosen on any previous turn. (iii) The game is a draw if all numbers have been chosen; otherwise the player who cannot choose a number anymore loses the game. The player $A$ takes the first turn. Determine the outcome of the game, assuming that both players use optimal strategies. [i]Proposed by Finland[/i]