Every square of a $3\times3$ board is assigned a sign $+$ or $-$. In every move, one square is selected and the signs are changed in the selected square and all the neighboring squares (two squares are neighboring if they have a common side). Is it true that, no matter how the signs were initially distributed, one can obtain a table in which all signs are $-$ after finitely many moves?

A hunter and an invisible rabbit play a game in the Euclidean plane. The rabbit's starting point, $A_0,$ and the hunter's starting point, $B_0$ are the same. After $n-1$ rounds of the game, the rabbit is at point $A_{n-1}$ and the hunter is at point $B_{n-1}.$ In the $n^{\text{th}}$ round of the game, three things occur in order: [list=i] [*]The rabbit moves invisibly to a point $A_n$ such that the distance between $A_{n-1}$ and $A_n$ is exactly $1.$ [*]A tracking device reports a point $P_n$ to the hunter. The only guarantee provided by the tracking device to the hunter is that the distance between $P_n$ and $A_n$ is at most $1.$ [*]The hunter moves visibly to a point $B_n$ such that the distance between $B_{n-1}$ and $B_n$ is exactly $1.$ [/list] Is it always possible, no matter how the rabbit moves, and no matter what points are reported by the tracking device, for the hunter to choose her moves so that after $10^9$ rounds, she can ensure that the distance between her and the rabbit is at most $100?$ [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Austria[/i]

Let $m, n$ be positive integers with $m > 1$. Anastasia partitions the integers $1, 2, \dots , 2m$ into $m$ pairs. Boris then chooses one integer from each pair and finds the sum of these chosen integers. Prove that Anastasia can select the pairs so that Boris cannot make his sum equal to $n$.

Alice and Bob are playing the following game. Each turn Alice suggests an integer and Bob writes down either that number or the sum of that number with all previously written numbers. Is it always possible for Alice to ensure that at some moment among the written numbers there are [list=a] [*]at least a hundred copies of number 5? [*]at least a hundred copies of number 10? [/list] [i]Andrey Arzhantsev[/i]

Two players play a game on an infinite board that consists of unit squares. Player $I$ chooses a square and marks it with $O$. Then player $II$ chooses another square and marks it with $X$. They play until one of the players marks a whole row or a whole column of five consecutive squares, and this player wins the game. If no player can achieve this, the result of the game is a tie. Show that player $II$ can prevent player $I$ from winning.

A regular icosahedron is a regular solid of $20$ faces, each in the form of an equilateral triangle, with $12$ vertices, so that each vertex is in $5$ edges. Twelve indistinguishable candies are glued to the vertices of a regular icosahedron (one at each vertex), and four of these twelve candies are special. André and Lucas want to together create a strategy for the following game: • First, André is told which are the four special sweets and he must remove exactly four sweets that are not special from the icosahedron and leave the solid on a table, leaving afterwards without communicating with Lucas. • Later, Sponchi, who wants to prevent Lucas from discovering the special sweets, can pick up the icosahedron from the table and rotate it however he wants. • After Sponchi makes his move, he leaves the room, Lucas enters and he must determine the four special candies out of the eight that remain in the icosahedron. Determine if there is a strategy for which Lucas can always properly discover the four special sweets.

Let $n\ge 2$ be an integer. Ariane and Bérénice play a game on the number of the residue classes modulo $n$. At the beginning there is the residue class $1$ on each piece of paper. It is the turn of the player whose turn it is to replace the current residue class $x$ with either $x + 1$ or by $2x$. The two players take turns, with Ariane starting. Ariane wins if the residue class $0$ is reached during the game. Bérénice wins if she can prevent that permanently. Depending on $n$, determine which of the two has a winning strategy.

Given a $n\times n$ table with non-negative real entries such that the sums of entries in each column and row are equal, a player plays the following game: The step of the game consists of choosing $n$ cells, no two of which share a column or a row, and subtracting the same number from each of the entries of the $n$ cells, provided that the resulting table has all non-negative entries. Prove that the player can change all entries to zeros.

The number 7 is written on a board. Alice and Bob in turn (Alice begins) write an additional digit in the number on the board: it is allowed to write the digit at the beginning (provided the digit is nonzero), between any two digits or at the end. If after someone’s turn the number on the board is a perfect square then this person wins. Is it possible for a player to guarantee the win? [i]Alexandr Gribalko[/i]

Alberto wants to organize a poker game with his friends this evening. Bruno and Barbara together go to gym once in three evenings, whereas Carla, Corrado, Dario and Davide are busy once in two evenings (not necessarily the same day). Moreover, Dario is not willing to play with Davide, since they have a quarrel over a girl. A poker game requires at least four persons (including Alberto). What is the probability that the game will be played?

Let $n\geq 2$ be an integer. Alice and Bob play a game concerning a country made of $n$ islands. Exactly two of those $n$ islands have a factory. Initially there is no bridge in the country. Alice and Bob take turns in the following way. In each turn, the player must build a bridge between two different islands $I_1$ and $I_2$ such that: $\bullet$ $I_1$ and $I_2$ are not already connected by a bridge. $\bullet$ at least one of the two islands $I_1$ and $I_2$ is connected by a series of bridges to an island with a factory (or has a factory itself). (Indeed, access to a factory is needed for the construction.) As soon as a player builds a bridge that makes it possible to go from one factory to the other, this player loses the game. (Indeed, it triggers an industrial battle between both factories.) If Alice starts, then determine (for each $n\geq 2$) who has a winning strategy. ([i]Note:[/i] It is allowed to construct a bridge passing above another bridge.)

$n$ numbers are written on a blackboard. Someone then repeatedly erases two numbers and writes half their arithmetic mean instead, until only a single number remains. If all the original numbers were $1$, show that the final number is not less than $\frac{1}{n}$.

Three boxes with at least one marble in each are given. In each step we double the number of marbles in one of the boxes, taking the required number of boxes from one of the other two boxes. Is it always possible to have one of the boxes empty after several steps?

There is an empty table with $2^{100}$ rows and $100$ columns. Alice and Eva take turns filling the empty cells of the first row of the table, Alice plays first. In each move, Alice chooses an empty cell and puts a cross in it; Eva in each move chooses an empty cell and puts a zero. When no empty cells remain in the first row, the players move on to the second row, and so on (in each new row Alice plays first). The game ends when all the rows are filled. Alice wants to make as many different rows in the table as possible, while Eva wants to make as few as possible. How many different rows will be there in the table if both follow their best strategies? Proposed by Denis Afrizonov

There are red and blue balls in an urn : $1024$ in total. In one round, we do the following: we draw the balls from the urn two by two. After all balls have been drawn, we put a new ball back into the urn for each pair of drawn balls: the colour of the new ball depends on that of the drawn pair. For two red balls drawn, we put back a red ball. For two blue balls, we put back a blue ball. For a red and a blue ball, we put back a black ball. For a red and a black ball, we put back a red ball. For a blue and a black ball, we put back a blue ball. Finally, for two black balls we put back a black ball. Then the next round begins. After $10$ rounds, a single ball remains in the urn, which is red. What is the maximal number of blue balls that might have been in the urn at the very beginning?

In the beginning there are $100$ integers in a row on the blackboard. Kain and Abel then play the following game: A [i]move[/i] consists in Kain choosing a chain of consecutive numbers; the length of the chain can be any of the numbers $1,2,\dots,100$ and in particular it is allowed that Kain only chooses a single number. After Kain has chosen his chain of numbers, Abel has to decide whether he wants to add $1$ to each of the chosen numbers or instead subtract $1$ from of the numbers. After that the next move begins, and so on. If there are at least $98$ numbers on the blackboard that are divisible by $4$ after a move, then Kain has won. Prove that Kain can force a win in a finite number of moves.