Oleksii and Solomiya play the following game on a square $6n\times 6n$, where $n$ is a positive integer. Oleksii in his turn places a piece of type $F$, consisting of three cells, on the board. Solomia, in turn, after each move of Oleksii, places the numbers $0, 1, 2$ in the cells of the figure that Oleksii has just placed, using each of the numbers exactly once. If two of Oleksii's pieces intersect at any moment (have a common square), he immediately loses. Once the square is completely filled with numbers, the game stops. In this case, if the sum of the numbers in each row and each column is divisible by $3$, Solomiya wins, and otherwise Oleksii wins. Who can win this game if the figure of type $F$ is: a) a rectangle ; b) a corner of three cells? [i]Proposed by Oleksii Masalitin[/i]

Dragos, the early ruler of Moldavia, and Maria the Oracle play the following game. Firstly, Maria chooses a set $S$ of prime numbers. Then Dragos gives an infinite sequence $x_1, x_2, ...$ of distinct positive integers. Then Maria picks a positive integer $M$ and a prime number $p$ from her set $S$. Finally, Dragos picks a positive integer $N$ and the game ends. Dragos wins if and only if for all integers $n \ge N$ the number $x_n$ is divisible by $p^M$; otherwise, Maria wins. Who has a winning strategy if the set S must be: $\hspace{5px}$a) finite; $\hspace{5px}$b) infinite? Proposed by [i]Boris Stanković, Bosnia and Herzegovina[/i]

A game consists of pieces of the shape of a regular tetrahedron of side $1$. Each face of each piece is painted in one of $n$ colors, and by this, the faces of one piece are not necessarily painted in different colors. Determine the maximum possible number of pieces, no two of which are identical.

A game of Jai Alai has eight players and starts with players $P_1$ and $P_2$ on court and the other players $P_3, P_4, P_5, P_6, P_7, P_8$ waiting in a queue. After each point is played, the loser goes to the end of the queue; the winner adds $1$ point to his score and stays on the court; and the player at the head of the queue comes on to contest the next point. Play continues until someone has scored $7$ points. At that moment, we observe that a total of $37$ points have been scored by all eight players. Determine who has won and justify your answer.

A single player game has the following rules: initially, there are $10$ piles of stones with $1,2,...,10$ stones, respectively. A movement consists on making one of the following operations: [b]i)[/b] to choose $2$ piles, both of them with at least $2$ stones, combine them and then add $2$ stones to the new pile; [b]ii)[/b] to choose a pile with at least $4$ stones, remove $2$ stones from it, and then split it into two piles with amount of piles to be chosen by the player. The game continues until is not possible to make an operation. Show that the number of piles with one stone in the end of the game is always the same, no matter how the movements are made.

Veronica, Ana and Gabriela are forming a round and have fun with the following game. One of them chooses a number and says out loud, the one to its left divides it by its largest prime divisor and says the result out loud and so on. The one who says the number out loud $1$ wins , at which point the game ends. Ana chose a number greater than $50$ and less than $100$ and won. Veronica chose the number following the one chosen by Ana and also won. Determine all the numbers that could have been chosen by Ana.

We are given an infinite row of cells extending infinitely in both directions. Some cells contain one or more stones. The total number of stones is finite. At each move, the player performs one of the following three operations: [b]1. [/b]Take three stones from some cell, and add one stone to the cells located one cell to the left and one cell to the right, each skipping one cell in between. [b]2. [/b]Take two stones from some cell, and add one stone to the cell one cell to the left, skipping one cell and one stone to the adjacent cell to the right. [b]3.[/b] Take one stone from each of two adjacent cells, and add one stone to the cell to the right of these two cells. The process ends when no moves are possible. Prove that the process always terminates and the final distribution of stones does not depend on the choices of moves made by the player. [img]https://i.imgur.com/IjcIDOa.png[/img] [i]Proposed by Luka Tsulaia, Georgia[/i]

Ana and Bogdan play the following turn based game: Ana starts with a pile of $n$ ($n \ge 3$) stones. At his turn each player has to split one pile. The winner is the player who can make at his turn all the piles to have at most two stones. Depending on $n$, determine which player has a winning strategy.

There are a) $2022$, b) $2023$ plates placed around a round table and on each of them there is one coin. Alice and Bob are playing a game that proceeds in rounds indefinitely as follows. In each round, Alice first chooses a plate on which there is at least one coin. Then Bob moves one coin from this plate to one of the two adjacent plates, chosen by him. Determine whether it is possible for Bob to select his moves so that, no matter how Alice selects her moves, there are never more than two coins on any plate.

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.

The players Alfred and Bertrand put together a polynomial $x^n + a_{n-1}x^{n- 1} +... + a_0$ with the given degree $n \ge 2$. To do this, they alternately choose the value in $n$ moves one coefficient each, whereby all coefficients must be integers and $a_0 \ne 0$ must apply. Alfred's starts first . Alfred wins if the polynomial has an integer zero at the end. (a) For which $n$ can Alfred force victory if the coefficients $a_j$ are from the right to the left, i.e. for $j = 0, 1,. . . , n - 1$, be determined? (b) For which $n$ can Alfred force victory if the coefficients $a_j$ are from the left to the right, i.e. for $j = n -1, n - 2,. . . , 0$, be determined? (Theresia Eisenkölbl, Clemens Heuberger)

A positive integer $a$ is selected, and some positive integers are written on a board. Alice and Bob play the following game. On Alice's turn, she must replace some integer $n$ on the board with $n+a$, and on Bob's turn he must replace some even integer $n$ on the board with $n/2$. Alice goes first and they alternate turns. If on his turn Bob has no valid moves, the game ends. After analyzing the integers on the board, Bob realizes that, regardless of what moves Alice makes, he will be able to force the game to end eventually. Show that, in fact, for this value of $a$ and these integers on the board, the game is guaranteed to end regardless of Alice's or Bob's moves.

Players $A$ and $B$ play a game with $N \geq 2012$ coins and $2012$ boxes arranged around a circle. Initially $A$ distributes the coins among the boxes so that there is at least $1$ coin in each box. Then the two of them make moves in the order $B,A,B,A,\ldots $ by the following rules: [b](a)[/b] On every move of his $B$ passes $1$ coin from every box to an adjacent box. [b](b)[/b] On every move of hers $A$ chooses several coins that were [i]not[/i] involved in $B$'s previous move and are in different boxes. She passes every coin to an adjacent box. Player $A$'s goal is to ensure at least $1$ coin in each box after every move of hers, regardless of how $B$ plays and how many moves are made. Find the least $N$ that enables her to succeed.

A positive integer $a$ is selected, and some positive integers are written on a board. Alice and Bob play the following game. On Alice's turn, she must replace some integer $n$ on the board with $n+a$, and on Bob's turn he must replace some even integer $n$ on the board with $n/2$. Alice goes first and they alternate turns. If on his turn Bob has no valid moves, the game ends. After analyzing the integers on the board, Bob realizes that, regardless of what moves Alice makes, he will be able to force the game to end eventually. Show that, in fact, for this value of $a$ and these integers on the board, the game is guaranteed to end regardless of Alice's or Bob's moves.

Consider the numbers from $1$ to $32$. A game is made by placing all the numbers in pairs and replacing each pair with the largest prime divisor of the sum of the numbers of that couple. For example, if we match the $32$ numbers as: $(1, 2), (3,4),(5, 6), (7, 8),..., (27, 28),(29, 30), (31,32)$, we get the following list of $16$ numbers: $3,7,11,5,...,11,59,7$. where there are repetitions. The game continues in a similar way until in the end only one number remains. Determine the highest possible value from the number that remains at the end.

Let $d$ and $m$ be two fixed positive integers. Pinocchio and Geppetto know the values of $d$ and $m$ and play the following game: In the beginning, Pinocchio chooses a polynomial $P$ of degree at most $d$ with integer coefficients. Then Geppetto asks him questions of the following form "What is the value of $P(n)$?'' for $n \in \mathbb{Z}$. Pinocchio usually says the truth, but he can lie up to $m$ times. What is, as a function of $d$ and $m$, the minimal number of questions that Geppetto needs to ask to be sure to determine $P$, no matter how Pinocchio chooses to reply?

Anja and Bernd take turns in removing stones from a heap, initially consisting of $n$ stones ($n \ge 2$). Anja begins, removing at least one but not all the stones. Afterwards, in each turn the player has to remove at least one stone and at most as many stones as removed in the preceding move. The player removing the last stone wins. Depending on the value of $n$, which player can ensure a win?

Alice has a deck of $36$ cards, $4$ suits of $9$ cards each. She picks any $18$ cards and gives the rest to Bob. Now each turn Alice picks any of her cards and lays it face-up onto the table, then Bob similarly picks any of his cards and lays it face-up onto the table. If this pair of cards has the same suit or the same value, Bob gains a point. What is the maximum number of points he can guarantee regardless of Alice’s actions? Mikhail Evdokimov

Let $n\geq 3$ be a positive integer. Alice and Bob are playing a game in which they take turns colouring the vertices of a regular $n$-gon. Alice plays the first move. Initially, no vertex is coloured. Both players start the game with $0$ points. In their turn, a player colours a vertex $V$ which has not been coloured and gains $k$ points where $k$ is the number of already coloured neighbouring vertices of $V$. (Thus, $k$ is either $0$, $1$ or $2$.) The game ends when all vertices have been coloured and the player with more points wins; if they have the same number of points, no one wins. Determine all $n\geq 3$ for which Alice has a winning strategy and all $n\geq 3$ for which Bob has a winning strategy.

Given an initial integer $ n_0 > 1$, two players, $ {\mathcal A}$ and $ {\mathcal B}$, choose integers $ n_1$, $ n_2$, $ n_3$, $ \ldots$ alternately according to the following rules : [b]I.)[/b] Knowing $ n_{2k}$, $ {\mathcal A}$ chooses any integer $ n_{2k \plus{} 1}$ such that \[ n_{2k} \leq n_{2k \plus{} 1} \leq n_{2k}^2. \] [b]II.)[/b] Knowing $ n_{2k \plus{} 1}$, $ {\mathcal B}$ chooses any integer $ n_{2k \plus{} 2}$ such that \[ \frac {n_{2k \plus{} 1}}{n_{2k \plus{} 2}} \] is a prime raised to a positive integer power. Player $ {\mathcal A}$ wins the game by choosing the number 1990; player $ {\mathcal B}$ wins by choosing the number 1. For which $ n_0$ does : [b]a.)[/b] $ {\mathcal A}$ have a winning strategy? [b]b.)[/b] $ {\mathcal B}$ have a winning strategy? [b]c.)[/b] Neither player have a winning strategy?

Jesse and Tjeerd are playing a game. Jesse has access to $n\ge 2$ stones. There are two boxes: in the black box there is room for half of the stones (rounded down) and in the white box there is room for half of the stones (rounded up). Jesse and Tjeerd take turns, with Jesse starting. Jesse grabs in his turn, always one new stone, writes a positive real number on the stone and places put him in one of the boxes that isn't full yet. Tjeerd sees all these numbers on the stones in the boxes and on his turn may move any stone from one box to the other box if it is not yet full, but he may also choose to do nothing. The game stops when both boxes are full. If then the total value of the stones in the black box is greater than the total value of the stones in the white box, Jesse wins; otherwise win Tjeerd. For every $n \ge 2$, determine who can definitely win (and give a corresponding 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?

(a) On each square of a squared sheet of paper of size $20 \times 20$ there is a soldier. Vanya chooses a number $d$ and Petya moves the soldiers to new squares in such a way that each soldier is moved through a distance of at least $d$ (the distance being measured between the centres of the initial and the new squares) and each square is occupied by exactly one soldier. For which $d$ is this possible? (Give the maximum possible $d$, prove that it is possible to move the soldiers through distances not less than $d$ and prove that there is no greater $d$ for which this procedure may be carried out.) (b) Answer the same question as (a), but with a sheet of size $21 \times 21$. (SS Krotov, Moscow)

A table $10 \times 10$ was filled according to the rules of the game “Bomb Squad”: several cells contain bombs (one bomb per cell) while each of the remaining cells contains a number, equal to the number of bombs in all cells adjacent to it by side or by vertex. Then the table is rearranged in the “reverse” order: bombs are placed in all cells previously occupied with numbers and the remaining cells are filled with numbers according to the same rule. Can it happen that the total sum of the numbers in the table will increase in a result?

Petro and Vasyl play the following game. They take turns making moves and Petro goes first. In one turn, a player chooses one of the numbers from $1$ to $2024$ that wasn't selected before and writes it on the board. The first player after whose turn the product of the numbers on the board will be divisible by $2024$ loses. Who wins if every player wants to win? [i]Proposed by Mykhailo Shtandenko[/i]