Found problems: 622
Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a finite family of subsets of some set $X{}$. It is known that for any two elements $x,y\in X$ there exists a permutation $\pi$ of the set $X$ such that $\pi(x)=y$, and for any $A\in\mathcal{F}$ \[\pi(A):=\{\pi(a):a\in A\}\in\mathcal{F}.\]A bear and crocodile play a game. At a move, a player paints one or more elements of the set $X$ in his own color: brown for the bear, green for the crocodile. The first player to fully paint one of the sets in $\mathcal{F}$ in his own color loses. If this does not happen and all the elements of $X$ have been painted, it is a draw. The bear goes first. Prove that he doesn't have 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]
Players $A$ and $B$ play a game on a blackboard that initially contains 2020 copies of the number 1 . In every round, player $A$ erases two numbers $x$ and $y$ from the blackboard, and then player $B$ writes one of the numbers $x+y$ and $|x-y|$ on the blackboard. The game terminates as soon as, at the end of some round, one of the following holds:
$(1)$ one of the numbers on the blackboard is larger than the sum of all other numbers;
$(2)$ there are only zeros on the blackboard.
Player $B$ has to pay to player $A$ an amount in reais equivalent to the quantity of numbers left on the blackboard after the game ends. Show that player $A$ can earn at least 8 reais regardless of the moves taken by $B$
Ps.: Easier version of [url = https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c6h2625868p22698110]ISL 2020 C8[/url]
Consider a board consisting of $n\times n$ unit squares where $n \ge 2$. Two cells are called neighbors if they share a horizontal or vertical border. In the beginning, all cells together contain $k$ tokens. Each cell may contain one or several tokens or none. In each turn, choose one of the cells that contains at least one token for each of its neighbors and move one of those to each of its neighbors. The game ends if no such cell exists.
(a) Find the minimal $k$ such that the game does not end for any starting configuration and choice of cells during the game.
(b) Find the maximal $k$ such that the game ends for any starting configuration and choice of cells during the game.
Proposed by Theresia Eisenkölbl
The number $1234567890$ is written on the blackboard. Two players $A$ and $B$ play the following game taking alternate moves. In one move, a player erases the number which is written on the blackboard, say, $m$, subtracts from $m$ any positive integer not exceeding the sum of the digits of $m$ and writes the obtained result instead of $m$. The first player who reduces the number written on the blackboard to $0$ wins. Determine which of the players has the winning strategy if the player $A$ makes the first move.
For positive integers $t,a$, and $b$, Lucy and Windy play the $(t,a,b)$- [i]game [/i] defined by the following rules. Initially, the number $t$ is written on a blackboard. On her turn, a player erases the number on the board and writes either the number $t - a$ or $t - b$ on the board. Lucy goes first and then the players alternate. The player who first reaches a negative losses the game. Prove that there exist infinitely many values of $t$ in which Lucy has a winning strategy for all pairs $(a, b)$ with $a + b = 2005$.
A set $A$ of squares is given on a chessboard which is infinite in all directions. On each square of this chessboard which does not belong to $A$ there is a king. On a command all kings may be moved in such a way that each king either remains on its square or is moved to an adjacent square, which may have been occupied by another king before the command. Each square may be occupied by at most one king. Does there exist such a number $k$ and such a way of moving the kings that after $k$ moves the kings will occupy all squares of the chessboard? Consider the following cases:
(a) $A$ is the set of all squares, both of whose coordinates are multiples of $100$. (There is a horizontal line numbered by the integers from $-\infty$ to $+\infty$, and a similar vertical line. Each square of the chessboard may be denoted by two numbers, its coordinates with respect to these axes.)
(b) $A$ is the set of all squares which are covered by $100$ fixed arbitrary queens (i.e. each square covered by at least one queen).
Remark:
If $A$ consists of just one square, then $k = 1$ and the required way is the following:
all kings to the left of the square of $A$ make one move to the right.
Ana plays a game on a $100\times 100$ chessboard. Initially, there is a white pawn on each square of the bottom row and a black pawn on each square of the top row, and no other pawns anywhere else.\\
Each white pawn moves toward the top row and each black pawn moves toward the bottom row in one of the following ways:
[list]
[*] it moves to the square directly in front of it if there is no other pawn on it;
[*] it [b]captures[/b] a pawn on one of the diagonally adjacent squares in the row immediately in front of it if there is a pawn of the opposite color on it.
[/list]
(We say a pawn $P$ [b]captures[/b] a pawn $Q$ of the opposite color if we remove $Q$ from the board and move $P$ to the square that $Q$ was previously on.)\\
\\
Ana can move any pawn (not necessarily alternating between black and white) according to those rules. What is the smallest number of pawns that can remain on the board after no more moves can be made?
[i]Proposed by José Alejandro Reyes González, Mexico[/i]
There is a black token in the lower-left corner of a board $m \times n$ ($m, n \ge 3$), and there are white tokens in the lower-right and upper-left corners of this board. Petryk and Vasyl are playing a game, with Petryk playing with a black token and Vasyl with white tokens. Petryk moves first.
In his move, a player can perform the following operation at most two times: choose any his token and move it to any adjacent by side cell, with one restriction: you can't move a token to a cell where at some point was one of the opponents' tokens.
Vasyl wins if at some point of the game white tokens are in the same cell. For which values of $m, n$ can Petryk prevent him from winning?
[i](Proposed by Arsenii Nikolaiev)[/i]
Let $n$ be an even integer greater than $2$. On the vertices of a regular polygon with n sides we can place red or blue chips. Two players, $A$ and $B$, play alternating turns of the next mode: each player, on their turn, chooses two vertices that have no tiles and places on one of them a red chip and in the other a blue chip. The goal of $A$ is to get three vertices consecutive with tiles of the same color. $B$'s goal is to prevent this from happening. To the beginning of the game there are no tiles in any of the vertices. Show that regardless of who starts to play, Player $B$ can always achieve his goal.
Let $n$ be a positive integer and $M = \{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6\}$. Two persons $A$ and $B$ play in the following Way: $A$ writes down a digit from $M$, $B$ appends a digit from $M$, and so it becomes alternately one digit from $M$ is appended until the $2n$-digit decimal representation of a number has been created. If this number is divisible by $9$, $B$ wins, otherwise $A$ wins.
For which $n$ can $A$ and for which $n$ can $B$ force the win?
Let $n> 1$ be an odd integer. On a square surface have been placed $n^2 - 1$ white slabs and a black slab on the center. Two workers $A$ and $B$ take turns removing them, betting that whoever removes black will lose. First
$A$ picks a slab; if it has row number $i \ge (n + 1) / 2$, then it will remove all tiles from rows with number
greater than or equal to$ i$, while if $i <(n + 1) / 2$, then it will remove all tiles from the rows with lesser number
or equal to $i$. Proceed in a similar way with columns. Then $B$ chooses one of the remaining tiles and repeats the
process. Determine who has a winning strategy and describe it.
Note: Row and column numbering is ascending from top to bottom and from left to right.
Ana and Benito play a game which consists of $2020$ turns. Initially, there are $2020$ cards on the table, numbered from $1$ to $2020$, and Ana possesses an extra card with number $0$. In the $k$-th turn, the player that doesn't possess card $k-1$ chooses whether to take the card with number $k$ or to give it to the other player. The number in each card indicates its value in points. At the end of the game whoever has most points wins. Determine whether one player has a winning strategy or whether both players can force a tie, and describe the strategy.
$n$ points are marked on the board points that are vertices of the regular $n$ -gon. One of the points is a chip. Two players take turns moving it to the other marked point and at the same time draw a segment that connects them. If two points already connected by a segment, such a move is prohibited. A player who can't make a move, lose. Which of the players can guarantee victory?
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]
There are seven piles with $2014$ pebbles each and a pile with $2008$ pebbles. Ana and Beto play in turns and Ana always plays first. One move consists of removing pebbles from all the piles. From each pile is removed a different amount of pebbles, between $1$ and $8$ pebbles. The first player who cannot make a move loses.
a) Who has a winning strategy?
b) If there were seven piles with $2015$ pebbles each and a pile with $2008$ pebbles, who has a winning strategy?
There are $n{}$ stones in a heap. Two players play the game by alternatively taking either 1 stone from the heap or a prime number of stones which divides the current number of stones in the heap. The player who takes the last stone wins. For which $n{}$ does the first player have a strategy so that he wins no matter how the other player plays?
[i]Fedor Ivlev[/i]
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.
Alice and Bob play the following game on a $100\times 100$ grid, taking turns, with Alice starting first. Initially the grid is empty. At their turn, they choose an integer from $1$ to $100^2$ that is not written yet in any of the cells and choose an empty cell, and place it in the chosen cell. When there is no empty cell left, Alice computes the sum of the numbers in each row, and her score is the maximum of these $100$ numbers. Bob computes the sum of the numbers in each column, and his score is the maximum of these $100$ numbers. Alice wins if her score is greater than Bob's score, Bob wins if his score is greater than Alice's score, otherwise no one wins.
Find if one of the players has a winning strategy, and if so which player has a winning strategy.
[i]Théo Lenoir, France[/i]
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]
In an infinite grid of regular triangles, Niels and Henrik are playing a game they made up.
Every other time, Niels picks a triangle and writes $\times$ in it, and every other time, Henrik picks a triangle where he writes a $o$. If one of the players gets four in a row in some direction (see figure), he wins the game.
Determine whether one of the players can force a victory.
[img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/6/e/5e80f60f110a81a74268fded7fd75a71e07d3a.png[/img]
Alice and Bob play the following game: Alice picks a set $A = \{1, 2, ..., n \}$ for some natural number $n \ge 2$. Then, starting from Bob, they alternatively choose one number from the set $A$, according to the following conditions: initially Bob chooses any number he wants, afterwards the number chosen at each step should be distinct from all the already chosen numbers and should differ by $1$ from an already chosen number. The game ends when all numbers from the set $A$ are chosen. Alice wins if the sum of all the numbers that she has chosen is composite. Otherwise Bob wins. Decide which player has a winning strategy.
Proposed by [i]Demetres Christofides, Cyprus[/i]
In a tennis tournament, any two of the $n$ participants played a match (the winner of a match gets $1$ point, the loser gets $0$). The scores after the tournament were $r_1\le r_2\le\ldots\le r_n$. A match between two players is called wrong if after it the winner has a score less than or equal to that of the loser. Consider the set $I=\{i|r_1\ge i\}$. Prove that the number of wrong matches is not less than $\sum_{i\in I}(r_i-i+1)$, and show that this value is realizable
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 $C$.
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.