Found problems: 622
Given a positive integer $k$ and other two integers $b > w > 1.$ There are two strings of pearls, a string of $b$ black pearls and a string of $w$ white pearls. The length of a string is the number of pearls on it. One cuts these strings in some steps by the following rules. In each step:
[b](i)[/b] The strings are ordered by their lengths in a non-increasing order. If there are some strings of equal lengths, then the white ones precede the black ones. Then $k$ first ones (if they consist of more than one pearl) are chosen; if there are less than $k$ strings longer than 1, then one chooses all of them.
[b](ii)[/b] Next, one cuts each chosen string into two parts differing in length by at most one. (For instance, if there are strings of $5, 4, 4, 2$ black pearls, strings of $8, 4, 3$ white pearls and $k = 4,$ then the strings of 8 white, 5 black, 4 white and 4 black pearls are cut into the parts $(4,4), (3,2), (2,2)$ and $(2,2)$ respectively.) The process stops immediately after the step when a first isolated white pearl appears.
Prove that at this stage, there will still exist a string of at least two black pearls.
[i]Proposed by Bill Sands, Thao Do, Canada[/i]
The Devil and the Man play a game. Initially, the Man pays some cash $s$ to the Devil. Then he lists some $97$ triples $\{i,j,k\}$ consisting of positive integers not exceeding $100$. After that, the Devil draws some convex polygon $A_1A_2...A_{100}$ with area $100$ and pays to the Man, the sum of areas of all triangles $A_iA_jA_k$. Determine the maximal value of $s$ which guarantees that the Man receives at least as much cash as he paid.
[i]Proposed by Nikolai Beluhov, Bulgaria[/i]
Azambuja writes a rational number $q$ on a blackboard. One operation is to delete $q$ and replace it by $q+1$; or by $q-1$; or by $\frac{q-1}{2q-1}$ if $q \neq \frac{1}{2}$. The final goal of Azambuja is to write the number $\frac{1}{2018}$ after performing a finite number of operations.
[b]a)[/b] Show that if the initial number written is $0$, then Azambuja cannot reach his goal.
[b]b)[/b] Find all initial numbers for which Azambuja can achieve his goal.
Two players play the following game starting with one pile of at least two stones. A player in turn chooses one of the piles and divides it into two or three nonempty piles. The player who cannot make a legal move loses the game. Which player has a winning strategy?
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?
The King called two wizards. He ordered First Wizard to write down $100$ positive integers (not necessarily distinct) on cards without revealing them to Second Wizard. Second Wizard must correctly determine all these integers, otherwise both wizards will lose their heads. First Wizard is allowed to provide Second Wizard with a list of distinct integers, each of which is either one of the integers on the cards or a sum of some of these integers. He is not allowed to tell which integers are on the cards and which integers are their sums. If Second Wizard correctly determines all $100$ integers
the King tears as many hairs from each wizard's beard as the number of integers in the list given to Second Wizard. What is the minimal number of hairs each wizard should sacri ce to stay alive?
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]
A circular game board is divided into $n \ge 3$ sectors. Each sector is either empty or occupied by a marker. In each step one chooses an occupied sector, removes its marker and then switches each of the two adjacent sectors from occupied to empty or vice-versa. Starting with a single occupied sector, for which $n$ is it possible to end up with all empty sectors after finitely many steps?
Let $ p \geq 2$ be a prime number. Eduardo and Fernando play the following game making moves alternately: in each move, the current player chooses an index $i$ in the set $\{0,1,2,\ldots, p-1 \}$ that was not chosen before by either of the two players and then chooses an element $a_i$ from the set $\{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9\}$. Eduardo has the first move. The game ends after all the indices have been chosen .Then the following number is computed:
$$M=a_0+a_110+a_210^2+\cdots+a_{p-1}10^{p-1}= \sum_{i=0}^{p-1}a_i.10^i$$.
The goal of Eduardo is to make $M$ divisible by $p$, and the goal of Fernando is to prevent this.
Prove that Eduardo has a winning strategy.
[i]Proposed by Amine Natik, Morocco[/i]
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.
Two players take turns playing on a $3\times1001$ board whose squares are initially all white. Each player, in his turn, paints two squares located in the same row or column black, not necessarily adjacent. The player who cannot make his move loses the game. Determine which of the two players has a strategy that allows them to win, no matter how well his opponent plays.
The box contains a complete set of dominoes. Two players take turns choosing one dice from the box and placing them on the table, applying them to the already laid out chain on either of the two sides according to the rules of domino. The one who cannot make his next move loses. Who will win if they both played correctly?
(a) An infinite sheet is divided into squares by two sets of parallel lines. Two players play the following game: the first player chooses a square and colours it red, the second player chooses a non-coloured square and colours it blue, the first player chooses a non-coloured square and colours it red, the second player chooses a non-coloured square and colours it blue, and so on. The goal of the first player is to colour four squares whose vertices form a square with sides parallel to the lines of the two parallel sets. The goal of the second player is to prevent him. Can the first player win?
(b) What is the answer to this question if the second player is permitted to colour two squares at once?
(DG Azov)
PS. (a) for Juniors, (a),(b) for Seniors
There are $100$ diamonds on the pile, $50$ of which are genuine and $50$ false. We invited a peculiar expert who alone can recognize which are which. Every time we show him some three diamonds, he would pick two and tell (truthfully) how many of them are genuine . Decide whether we can surely detect all genuine diamonds regardless how the expert chooses the pairs to be considered.
On an infi nite grid, a square with four vertices lie at $(m, n)$, $(m-1, n)$, $(m,n-1)$, $(m-1, n-1)$ is denoted as cell $(m,n)$ $(m, n \in Z)$. Some marbles are dropped on some cell. Each cell may have more than one marble or have no marble at all. Consider a "move" can be conducted in one of two following ways:
i) Remove one marble from cell $(m,n)$ (if there is marble at that cell), then add one marble to each of cell $(m - 1, n- 2)$ and cell $(m -2, n - 1)$.
ii) Remove two marbles from cell $(m,n)$ (if there is marble at that cell), then add one marble to each of cell $(m +1, n - 2)$ and cell $(m - 2, n +1)$.
Assume that initially, there are $n$ marbles at the cell $(1,n), (2,n - 1),..., (n, 1)$ (each cell contains one marble). Can we conduct an finite amount of moves such that both cells $(n + 1, n)$ and $(n, n + 1)$ have marbles?
Simon plays a game on an $n\times n$ grid of cells. Initially, each cell is filled with an integer. Every minute, Simon picks a cell satisfying the following:
[list]
[*] The magnitude of the integer in the chosen cell is less than $n^{n^n}$
[*] The sum of all the integers in the neighboring cells (sharing one side with the chosen cell) is non-zero
[/list]
Simon then adds each integer in a neighboring cell to the chosen cell.
Show that Simon will eventually not be able to make any valid moves.
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?
The following operation is allowed on a finite graph: Choose an arbitrary cycle of length 4 (if there is any), choose an arbitrary edge in that cycle, and delete it from the graph. For a fixed integer ${n\ge 4}$, find the least number of edges of a graph that can be obtained by repeated applications of this operation from the complete graph on $n$ vertices (where each pair of vertices are joined by an edge).
[i]Proposed by Norman Do, Australia[/i]
Maker and Breaker are building a wall. Maker has a supply of green cubical building blocks, and Breaker has a supply of red ones, all of the same size. On the ground, a row of $m$ squares has been marked in chalk as place-holders. Maker and Breaker now take turns in placing a block either directly on one of these squares, or on top of another block already in place, in such a way that the height of each column never exceeds $n$. Maker places the first block.
Maker bets that he can form a green row, i.e. all $m$ blocks at a certain height are green. Breaker bets that he can prevent Maker from achieving this. Determine all pairs $(m,n)$ of positive integers for which Maker can make sure he wins the bet.
On a board there are written the integers from $1$ to $119$. Two players, $A$ and $B$, make a move by turn. A $move$ consists in erasing $9$ numbers from the board. The player after whose move two numbers remain on the board wins and his score is equal with the positive difference of the two remaining numbers. The player $A$ makes the first move. Find the highest integer $k$, such that the player $A$ can be sure that his score is not smaller than $k$.
Define $f : \mathbb{Z}_+ \to \mathbb{Z}_+$ such that $f(1) = 1$ and $f(n) $ is the greatest prime divisor of $n$ for $n > 1$.
Aino and Väinö play a game, where each player has a pile of stones. On each turn the player to turn with $m$ stones in his pile may remove at most $f(m)$ stones from the opponent's pile, but must remove at least one stone. (The own pile stays unchanged.) The first player to clear the opponent's pile wins the game. Prove that there exists a positive integer $n$ such that Aino loses, when both players play optimally, Aino starts, and initially both players have $n$ stones.
On each cell of a $2005\times2005$ chessboard, there is a marker. In each move, we are allowed to remove a marker that is a neighbor to an even number of markers (but at least one). Two markers are considered neighboring if their cells share a vertex.
(a) Find the least number $n$ of markers that we can end up with on the chessboard.
(b) If we end up with this minimum number $n$ of markers, prove that no two of them will be neighboring.
Javiera and Claudio play on a board consisting of a row with $2019$ cells. Claudio starts by placing a token anywhere on the board. Next Javiera says a natural number $k$, $1 \le k \le n$ and Claudio must move the token to the right or to the left at your choice $k$ squares and so on.
Javiera wins if she manages to remove the piece that Claudio moves from the board. Determine the smallest $n$ such that Javiera always wins after a finite number of moves.
There are $11$ empty boxes. In one move, a player can put one coin in each of some $10$ boxes. Two people play, taking turns. The winner is the player after whose move in one of the boxes there will be $21$ coins. Who has a winning strategy?
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.