Let $n$ be a positive integer. Bolek draws $2n$ points in the plane, no two of them defining a vertical or a horizontal line. Then Lolek draws for each of these $2n$ points two rays emanating from them, one of them vertically and the other one horizontally. Lolek wants to maximize the number of regions in which these rays divide the plane. Determine the largest number $k$ such that Lolek can obtain at least $k$ regions independent of the points chosen by Bolek.

Alma and Bertha play the following game. There are $100$ round, $200$ triangular and $200$ square pieces on a table. In each move a player must remove two pieces, but it cannot be a triangle and a square. Alma starts, and one loses if one is unable to move or if there are no pieces left when it is one’s turn. Which player has a winning strategy?

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]

$A$ and $B$ play a game, given an integer $N$, $A$ writes down $1$ first, then every player sees the last number written and if it is $n$ then in his turn he writes $n+1$ or $2n$, but his number cannot be bigger than $N$. The player who writes $N$ wins. For which values of $N$ does $B$ win? [i]Proposed by A. Slinko & S. Marshall, New Zealand[/i]

Consider the starting position in a game of bughouse. Exhibit a sequence of moves on both boards, indicating the chronology, such that at the end: (a) The positions on both boards are the same as the original positions. (b) It is White to play on one board, but Black to play on the other. (c) All four players still have the right to castle subsequently (equivalently, the kings and rooks haven’t moved). for each of the following cases : (a) without moving any pawns. (b) without moving any queen.

Let $T$ be the set of ordered triples $(x,y,z)$, where $x,y,z$ are integers with $0\leq x,y,z\leq9$. Players $A$ and $B$ play the following guessing game. Player $A$ chooses a triple $(x,y,z)$ in $T$, and Player $B$ has to discover $A$[i]'s[/i] triple in as few moves as possible. A [i]move[/i] consists of the following: $B$ gives $A$ a triple $(a,b,c)$ in $T$, and $A$ replies by giving $B$ the number $\left|x+y-a-b\right |+\left|y+z-b-c\right|+\left|z+x-c-a\right|$. Find the minimum number of moves that $B$ needs to be sure of determining $A$[i]'s[/i] triple.

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).

On a square of a chessboard there is a pawn . Two players take turns to move it to another square, subject to the rule that , at each move the distance moved is strictly greater than that of the previous move. A player loses when unable to make a move on his turn. Who wins if the players always choose the best strategy? (The pawn is always placed in the centre of its square. ) ( F . L . Nazarov)

A pile of $n$ pebbles is placed in a vertical column. This configuration is modified according to the following rules. A pebble can be moved if it is at the top of a column which contains at least two more pebbles than the column immediately to its right. (If there are no pebbles to the right, think of this as a column with 0 pebbles.) At each stage, choose a pebble from among those that can be moved (if there are any) and place it at the top of the column to its right. If no pebbles can be moved, the configuration is called a [i]final configuration[/i]. For each $n$, show that, no matter what choices are made at each stage, the final configuration obtained is unique. Describe that configuration in terms of $n$. [url=http://www.mathlinks.ro/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=119189]IMO ShortList 2001, combinatorics problem 7, alternative[/url]

Olya and Tolya are playing a game on $[0,1]$ segment. In the beginning it is white. In the first round Tolya chooses a number $0 \leq l \leq 1$, and then Olya chooses a subsegment of $[0,1]$ of length $l$ and recolors every its point to the opposite color(white to black, black to white). In the next round players change roles, etc. The game lasts $2024$ rounds. Let $L$ be the sum of length of white segments after the end of the game. If $L > \frac{1}{2}$ Olya wins, otherwise Tolya wins. Which player has a strategy to guarantee his win? [i]A. Naradzetski[/i]

A magician and his assistant are performing the following trick. There is a row of $13$ empty closed boxes. The magician leaves the room, and a person from the audience hides a coin in each of two boxes of his choice, so that the assistant knows which boxes contain coins. The magician returns and the assistant is allowed to open one box that does not contain a coin. Next, the magician selects four boxes, which are then simultaneously opened. The goal of the magician is to open both boxes that contain coins. Devise a method that will allow the magician and his assistant to always successfully perform the trick. (Igor Zhizhilkin) [url=https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c6h1801447p11962869]junior version posted here[/url]

Two pirates divide the loot, consisting of two bags of coins and a diamond, according to the following rules. First the first pirate takes take a few coins from any bag and transfer them from this bag in the other the same number of coins. Then the second pirate does the same (choosing the bag from which he takes the coins at his discretion) and etc. until you can take coins according to these rules. The pirate who takes the coins last gets the diamond. Who will get the diamond if is each of the pirates trying to get it? Give your answer depending on the initial number of coins in the bags.

Three legendary knights are fighting against a multiheaded dragon. Whenever the first knight attacks, he cuts off half of the current number of heads plus one more. Whenever the second knight attacks, he cuts off one third of the current number of heads plus two more. Whenever the third knight attacks, he cuts off one fourth of the current number of heads plus three more. They repeatedly attack in an arbitrary order so that at each step an integer number of heads is being cut off. If all the knights cannot attack as the number of heads would become non-integer, the dragon eats them. Will the knights be able to cut off all the dragon’s heads if it has $41!$ heads? Alexey Zaslavsky

( "Sisyphian Labour" ) There are $1001$ steps going up a hill , with rocks on some of them {no more than 1 rock on each step ) . Sisyphus may pick up any rock and raise it one or more steps up to the nearest empty step . Then his opponent Aid rolls a rock (with an empty step directly below it) down one step . There are $500$ rocks, originally located on the first $500$ steps. Sisyphus and Aid move rocks in turn , Sisyphus making the first move . His goal is to place a rock on the top step. Can Aid stop him? ( S . Yeliseyev)

There is a queue of $n{}$ girls on one side of a tennis table, and a queue of $n{}$ boys on the other side. Both the girls and the boys are numbered from $1{}$ to $n{}$ in the order they stand. The first game is played by the girl and the boy with the number $1{}$ and then, after each game, the loser goes to the end of their queue, and the winner remains at the table. After a while, it turned out that each girl played exactly one game with each boy. Prove that if $n{}$ is odd, then a girl and a boy with odd numbers played in the last game. [i]Proposed by A. Gribalko[/i]

All the cells in a $8* 8$ board are colored white. Omar and Asaad play the following game: in the beginning Omar colors $n$ cells red, then Asaad chooses $4$ rows and $4$ columns and colors them black. Omar wins if there is at least one red cell. Find the least possible value for n such that Omar can always win regardless of Asaad's move.

In an $8\times 8$ chessboard, the rows are numbers from $1$ to $8$ and the columns are labelled from $a$ to $h$. In a two-player game on this chessboard, the first player has a White Rook which starts on the square $b2$, and the second player has a Black Rook which starts on the square $c4$. The two players take turns moving their rooks. In each move, a rook lands on another square in the same row or the same column as its starting square. However, that square cannot be under attack by the other rook, and cannot have been landed on before by either rook. The player without a move loses the game. Which player has a winning strategy?

$16$ chess players held a tournament among themselves: every two chess players played exactly one game. For victory in the party was given $1$ point, for a draw $0.5$ points, for defeat $0$ points. It turned out that exactly 15 chess players shared the first place. How many points could the sixteenth chess player score?

The expression $1\oplus2\oplus3\oplus4\oplus5\oplus6\oplus7\oplus8\oplus9$ is written on a blackboard. Bill and Peter play the following game. They replace $\oplus$ by $+$ or $\cdot$, making their moves in turn, and one of them can use only $+$, while the other one can use only $\cdot$. At the beginning, Bill selects the sign he will use, and he tries to make the result an even number. Peter tries to make the result an odd number. Prove that Peter can always win. [hide=Original Wording]The expression $1*2*3*4*5*6*7*8*9$ is written on a blackboard. Bill and Peter play the following game. They replace $*$ by $+$ or $\cdot$, making their moves in turn, and one of them can use only $+$, while the other one can use only $\cdot$. At the beginning Bill selects the sign he will use, and he tries to make the result an even number. Peter tries to make the result an odd number. Prove that Peter can always win.[/hide]

(Game) Károly and Dezso wish to count up to $m$ and play the following game in the meantime: they start from $0$ and the two players can add a positive number less than $13$ to the previous number, taking turns. However because of their superstition, if one of them added $x$, then the other one in the next step cannot add $13-x$. Whoever reaches (or surpasses) $m$ first, loses. [i]Defeat the organisers in this game twice in a row! A starting position will be given and then you can decide whether you want to go first or second.[/i]

Five identical empty buckets of $2$-liter capacity stand at the vertices of a regular pentagon. Cinderella and her wicked Stepmother go through a sequence of rounds: At the beginning of every round, the Stepmother takes one liter of water from the nearby river and distributes it arbitrarily over the five buckets. Then Cinderella chooses a pair of neighbouring buckets, empties them to the river and puts them back. Then the next round begins. The Stepmother goal's is to make one of these buckets overflow. Cinderella's goal is to prevent this. Can the wicked Stepmother enforce a bucket overflow? [i]Proposed by Gerhard Woeginger, Netherlands[/i]

Albert and Brita play a game with a bar of $19$ adjacent squares. Initially, there is a button on the middle square of the bar. At every turn Albert mentions one positive integer less than $5$, and Brita moves button a number of squares in the direction of her choice - while doing so however, Brita must not move the button more than twice in one direction order. Prove that Albert can choose the numbers so that by the $19$th turn, Brita to be forced to move the button out of the bar.

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]

Alice and Bob play the following game on a square grid with $2024 \times 2024$ unit squares. They take turns covering unit squares with stickers including their names. Alice plays the odd-numbered turns, and Bob plays the even-numbered turns. \\ On the $k$-th turn, let $n_k$ be the least integer such that $n_k\geqslant\tfrac{k}{2024}$. If there is at least one square without a sticker, then the player taking the turn: [list = i] [*] selects at most $n_k$ unit squares on the grid such that at least one of the chosen unit squares does not have a sticker. [*] covers each of the selected unit squares with a sticker that has their name on it. If a selected square already has a sticker on it, then that sticker is removed first. [/list] At the end of their turn, a player wins if there exist $123$ unit squares containing stickers with that player's name that are placed on horizontally, vertically, or diagonally consecutive unit squares. We consider the game to be a draw if all of the unit squares are covered but no player has won yet. \\ Does Alice have a winning strategy? [i]Proposed by Erik Paemurru, Estonia[/i]

We consider the following game for one person. The aim of the player is to reach a fixed capital $C>2$. The player begins with capital $0<x_0<C$. In each turn let $x$ be the player’s current capital. Define $s(x)$ as follows: $$s(x):=\begin{cases}x&\text{if }x<1\\C-x&\text{if }C-x<1\\1&\text{otherwise.}\end{cases}$$Then a fair coin is tossed and the player’s capital either increases or decreases by $s(x)$, each with probability $\frac12$. Find the probability that in a finite number of turns the player wins by reaching the capital $C$.