(a) The vertices of a regular $10$-gon are painted in turn black and white. Two people play the following game . Each in turn draws a diagonal connecting two vertices of the same colour . These diagonals must not intersect . The winner is the player who is able to make the last move. Who will win if both players adopt the best strategy? (b) Answer the same question for the regular $12$-gon . (V.G. Ivanov)

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?

Suppose you are playing a game against Daniel. There are $2017$ chips on a table. During your turn, if you can write the number of chips on the table as a sum of two cubes of not necessarily distinct, nonnegative integers, then you win. Otherwise, you can take some number of chips between $1$ and $6$ inclusive off the table. (You may not leave fewer than $0$ chips on the table.) Daniel can also do the same on his turn. You make the first move, and you and Daniel always make the optimal move during turns. Who should win the game? Explain.

Axel and Berta play the following games: On a board are a number of positive integers. One move consists of a player exchanging a number $x$ on the board for two positive integers y and $z$ (not necessarily different), such that $y + z = x$. The game ends when the numbers on the board are relatively coprime in pairs. The player who made the last move has then lost the game. At the beginning of the game, only the number $2015$ is on the board. The two players make do their moves in turn and Berta begins. One of the players has a winning strategy. Who, and why?

A game consists of a grid of $4\times 4$ and tiles of two colors (Yellow and White). A player chooses a type of token and gives it to the second player who places it where he wants, then the second player chooses a type of token and gives it to the first who places it where he wants, They continue in this way and the one who manages to form a line with three tiles of the same color wins (horizontal, vertical or diagonal and regardless of whether it is the tile you started with or not). Before starting the game, two yellow and two white pieces are already placed as shows the figure below. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/b/5/ba11377252c278c4154a8c3257faf363430ef7.png[/img] Yolanda and Xinia play a game. If Yolanda starts (choosing the token and giving it to Xinia for this to place) indicate if there is a winning strategy for either of the two players and, if any, describe the strategy.

There are $2024$ mathematicians sitting in a row next to the river Tisza. Each of them is working on exactly one research topic, and if two mathematicians are working on the same topic, everyone sitting between them is also working on it. Marvin is trying to figure out for each pair of mathematicians whether they are working on the same topic. He is allowed to ask each mathematician the following question: “How many of these 2024 mathematicians are working on your topic?” He asks the questions one by one, so he knows all previous answers before he asks the next one. Determine the smallest positive integer $k$ such that Marvin can always accomplish his goal with at most $k$ questions.

A point in the cartesian plane with integer coordinates is called a lattice point. Consider the following one player game. A finite set of selected lattice points and finite set of selected segments is called a position in this game if the following hold: (i) The endpoints of each selected segment are lattice points; (ii) Each selected segment is parallel to a coordinate axis or to one of the lines $y = \pm x$, (iii) Each selected segment contains exactly five lattice points, all of which are selected, (iv) Every two selected segments have at most one common point. A move in this game consists of selecting a lattice point and a segment such that the new set of selected lattice points and segments is a position. Prove or disprove that there exists an initial position such that the game can have infinitely many moves.

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.

Two players play the following game. The first player starts by writing either $0$ or $1$ and then, on his every move, chooses either $0$ or $1$ and writes it to the right of the existing digits until there are $1999$ digits. Each time the first player puts down a digit (except the first one) , the second player chooses two digits among those already written and swaps them. Can the second player guarantee that after his last move the line of digits will be symmetrical about the middle digit? (I Izmestiev)

The archipelago Barrantes - $n$ is a group of islands connected by bridges as follows: there are a main island (Humberto), in the first step I place an island below Humberto and one above from Humberto and I connect these 2 islands to Humberto. I put $2$ islands to the left of these $2$ new islands and I connect them with a bridge to the island that they have on their right. In the second step I take the last $2$ islands and I apply the same process that I applied to Humberto. In the third step I apply the same process to the $4$ new islands. We repeat this step n times we reflect the archipelago that we have on a vertical line to the right of Humberto. We connect Humberto with his reflection and so we have the archipelago Barrantes -$n$. However, the archipelago Barrantes -$n$ exists on a small planet cylindrical, so that the islands to the left of the archipelago are in fact the islands that are connected to the islands on the right. The figure shows the Barrantes archipelago -$2$, The islands at the edges are still numbered to show how the archipelago connects around the cylindrical world, the island numbered $1$ on the left is the same as the island numbered $1$ on the right. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/e/c/803d95ce742c2739729fdb4d74af59d4d0652f.png[/img] One day two bands of pirates arrive at the archipelago Barrantes - $n$: The pirates Black Beard and the Straw Hat Pirates. Blackbeard proposes a game to Straw Hat: The first player conquers an island, the next player must conquer an island connected to the island that was conquered in the previous turn (clearly not conquered on a previous shift). The one who cannot conquer any island in his turn loses. Straw Hat decides to give the first turn to Blackbeard. Prove that Straw Hat has a winning strategy for every $n$.

The cells of a $8 \times 8$ table are initially white. Alice and Bob play a game. First Alice paints $n$ of the fields in red. Then Bob chooses $4$ rows and $4$ columns from the table and paints all fields in them in black. Alice wins if there is at least one red field left. Find the least value of $n$ such that Alice can win the game no matter how Bob plays.

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]

An investigator works out that he needs to ask at most $91$ questions on the basis that all the answers will be yes or no and all will be true. The questions may depend upon the earlier answers. Show that he can make do with $105$ questions if at most one answer could be a lie.

(a) Two players take turns taking $1, 2$ or $3$ stones at random from a given set of $3$ piles, in which initially on $11, 22$ and $33$ stones. If after the move of one of the players in any two groups the same number of stones will remain, this player has won. Who will win with the right game of both players? (b) Two players take turns taking $1$ or $2$ stones from one pile, randomly selected from a given set of $3$ ordered piles, in which at first $100, 200$ and $300$ stones, in order from left to right. Additionally it is forbidden to make a course at which, for some pair of the next handfuls, quantity of stones in the left will be more than the number of stones in the right. If after the move of one of the players of the stones in handfuls will not remain, then this player won. Who will win with the right game of both players? [hide=original wording] 1. Два гравця по черзi беруть 1, 2 чи 3 камiнця довiльним чином з заданого набору з 3 купок, в яких спочатку по 11, 22 i 33 камiнцiв. Якщо пiсля хода одного з гравцiв в якихось двух купках залишиться однакова кiлькiсть камiнцiв, то цей гравець виграв. Хто виграє при правильнiй грi обох гравцiв? 2. Два гравця по черзi беруть 1 чи 2 камiнця з одної купки, довiльної вибраної з заданого набору з 3 впорядкованих купок, в яких спочатку по 100, 200 i 300 камiнцiв, в порядку злiва направо. Додатково забороняется робити ход при якому, для деякої пари сусiднiх купок, кiлькiсть камiнцiв в лiвiй стане бiльше нiж кiлькiсть камiнцiв в правiй. Якщо пiсля ходу одного з гравцiв камiнцiв в купках не залишиться, то цей гравець виграв. Хто виграє при правильнiй грi обох гравцiв?[/hide]

Arne and Bertil play a game on an $11 \times 11$ grid. Arne starts. He has a game piece that is placed on the center od the grid at the beginning of the game. At each move he moves the piece one step horizontally or vertically. Bertil places a wall along each move any of an optional four squares. Arne is not allowed to move his piece through a wall. Arne wins if he manages to move the pice out of the board, while Bertil wins if he manages to prevent Arne from doing that. Who wins if from the beginning there are no walls on the game board and both players play optimally?

In an $8$-square board -like the one in the figure- there is initially one checker in each square. $ \begin{tabular}{ | l | c | c |c | c| c | c | c | r| } \hline & & & & & & & \\ \hline \end{tabular} $ A move consists of choosing two tokens and moving one of them one square to the right and the other one one square to the left. If after $4$ moves the $8$ checkers are distributed in only $2$ boxes, determine what those boxes can be and how many checkers are in each one.

The polynomial $$x^{10} + ?x^9 + ?x^8 + ... + ?x + 1$$ is written on the blackboard. Two players substitute (real) numbers instead of one of the question marks in turn. ($9$ turns total.) The first wins if the polynomial will have no real roots. Who wins?

Given $1990$ piles of stones, containing $1, 2, 3, ... , 1990$ stones. A move is to take an equal number of stones from one or more piles. How many moves are needed to take all the stones?

Mr. Ganzgenau would like to take his tea mug out of the microwave right at the front. But Mr. Ganzgenau's microwave doesn't really want to be very precise play along. To be precise, the two of them play the following game: Let $n$ be a positive integer. The turntable of the microwave makes one in $n$ seconds full turn. Each time the microwave is switched on, an integer number of seconds turned either clockwise or counterclockwise so that there are n possible positions in which the tea mug can remain. One of these positions is right up front. At the beginning, the microwave turns the tea mug to one of the $n$ possible positions. After that Mr. Ganzgenau enters an integer number of seconds in each move, and the microwave decides either clockwise or counterclockwise this number of spin for seconds. For which $n$ can Mr. Ganzgenau force the tea cup after a finite number of puffs to be able to take it out of the microwave right up front? (Birgit Vera Schmidt) [hide=original wording, in case it doesn't make much sense]Herr Ganzgenau möchte sein Teehäferl ganz genau vorne aus der Mikrowelle herausnehmen. Die Mikrowelle von Herrn Ganzgenau möchte da aber so ganz genau gar nicht mitspielen. Ganz genau gesagt spielen die beiden das folgende Spiel: Sei n eine positive ganze Zahl. In n Sekunden macht der Drehteller der Mikrowelle eine vollständige Umdrehung. Bei jedem Einschalten der Mikrowelle wird eine ganzzahlige Anzahl von Sekunden entweder im oder gegen den Uhrzeigersinn gedreht, sodass es n mögliche Positionen gibt, auf denen das Teehäferl stehen bleiben kann. Eine dieser Positionen ist ganz genau vorne. Zu Beginn dreht die Mikrowelle das Teehäferl auf eine der n möglichen Positionen. Danach gibt Herr Ganzgenau in jedem Zug eine ganzzahlige Anzahl von Sekunden ein, und die Mikrowelle entscheidet, entweder im oder gegen den Uhrzeigersinn diese Anzahl von Sekunden lang zu drehen. Für welche n kann Herr Ganzgenau erzwingen, das Teehäferl nach endlich vielen Zügen ganz genau vorne aus der Mikrowelle nehmen zu können? (Birgit Vera Schmidt) [/hide]

In the middle cell of the $1 \times 2005$ strip there is a chip. Two players each queues move it: first, the first player moves the piece one cell in any direction, then the second one moves it $2$ cells, the $1$st - by $4$ cells, the 2nd by $8$, etc. (the $k$-th shift occurs by $2^{k-1}$ cells). That, whoever cannot make another move loses. Who can win regardless of the opponent's play?

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.

Mojtaba and Hooman are playing a game. Initially Mojtaba draws $2018$ vectors with zero sum. Then in each turn, starting with Mojtaba, the player takes a vector and puts it on the plane. After the first move, the players must put their vector next to the previous vector (the beginning of the vector must lie on the end of the previous vector). At last, there will be a closed polygon. If this polygon is not self-intersecting, Mojtaba wins. Otherwise Hooman. Who has the winning strategy? [i]Proposed by Mahyar Sefidgaran, Jafar Namdar [/i]

There are $68$ coins , each coin having a different weight than that of each other . Show how to find the heaviest and lightest coin in $100$ weighings on a balance beam. (S. Fomin, Leningrad)

The numbers $1, 2,..., 2020$ are written on the blackboard. Venus and Serena play the following game. First, Venus connects by a line segment two numbers such that one of them divides the other. Then Serena connects by a line segment two numbers which has not been connected and such that one of them divides the other. Then Venus again and they continue until there is a triangle with one vertex in $2020$, i.e. $2020$ is connected to two numbers that are connected with each other. The girl that has drawn the last line segment (completed the triangle) is the winner. Which of the girls has a winning strategy? (Tomáš Bárta, Czech Republic)

The numbers from $1$ to $2017$ are written on a board. Deka and Farid play the following game : each of them, on his turn, erases one of the numbers. Anyone who erases a multiple of $2, 3$ or $5$ loses and the game is over. Is there a winning strategy for Deka ?