Found problems: 83
2020 OMpD, 2
A pile of $2020$ stones is given. Arnaldo and Bernaldo play the following game: In each move, it is allowed to remove $1, 4, 16, 64, ...$ (any power of $4$) stones from the pile. They make their moves alternately, and the player who can no longer play loses. If Arnaldo is the first to play, who has the winning strategy?
2022 Iran Team Selection Test, 6
Let $m,n$ and $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_m$ be arbitrary positive integers. Ali and Mohammad Play the following game. At each step, Ali chooses $b_1,b_2,\dots,b_m \in \mathbb{N}$ and then Mohammad chosses a positive integers $s$ and obtains a new sequence $\{c_i=a_i+b_{i+s}\}_{i=1}^m$, where $$b_{m+1}=b_1,\ b_{m+2}=b_2, \dots,\ b_{m+s}=b_s$$ The goal of Ali is to make all the numbers divisible by $n$ in a finite number of steps. FInd all positive integers $m$ and $n$ such that Ali has a winning strategy, no matter how the initial values $a_1, a_2,\dots,a_m$ are.
[hide=clarification] after we create the $c_i$ s, this sequence becomes the sequence that we continue playing on, as in it is our 'new' $a_i$[/hide]
Proposed by Shayan Gholami
2017 CentroAmerican, 2
Susana and Brenda play a game writing polynomials on the board. Susana starts and they play taking turns.
1) On the preparatory turn (turn 0), Susana choose a positive integer $n_0$ and writes the polynomial $P_0(x)=n_0$.
2) On turn 1, Brenda choose a positive integer $n_1$, different from $n_0$, and either writes the polynomial
$$P_1(x)=n_1x+P_0(x) \textup{ or } P_1(x)=n_1x-P_0(x)$$
3) In general, on turn $k$, the respective player chooses an integer $n_k$, different from $n_0, n_1, \ldots, n_{k-1}$, and either writes the polynomial
$$P_k(x)=n_kx^k+P_{k-1}(x) \textup{ or } P_k(x)=n_kx^k-P_{k-1}(x)$$
The first player to write a polynomial with at least one whole whole number root wins. Find and describe a winning strategy.
2018 All-Russian Olympiad, 5
On the circle, 99 points are marked, dividing this circle into 99 equal arcs. Petya and Vasya play the game, taking turns. Petya goes first; on his first move, he paints in red or blue any marked point. Then each player can paint on his own turn, in red or blue, any uncolored marked point adjacent to the already painted one. Vasya wins, if after painting all points there is an equilateral triangle, all three vertices of which are colored in the same color. Could Petya prevent him?
2020 Latvia Baltic Way TST, 8
A magician has $300$ cards with numbers from $1$ to $300$ written on them, each number on exactly one card. The magician then lays these cards on a $3 \times 100$ rectangle in the following way - one card in each unit square so that the number cannot be seen and cards with consecutive numbers are in neighbouring squares. Afterwards, the magician turns over $k$ cards of his choice. What is the smallest value of $k$ for which it can happen that the opened cards definitely determine the exact positions of all other cards?
2020 Serbia National Math Olympiad, 6
We are given a natural number $k$. Let us consider the following game on an infinite onedimensional board. At the start of the game, we distrubute $n$ coins on the fields of the given board (one field can have multiple coins on itself). After that, we have two choices for the following moves:
$(i)$ We choose two nonempty fields next to each other, and we transfer all the coins from one of the fields to the other.
$(ii)$ We choose a field with at least $2$ coins on it, and we transfer one coin from the chosen field to the $k-\mathrm{th}$ field on the left , and one coin from the chosen field to the $k-\mathrm{th}$ field on the right.
$\mathbf{(a)}$ If $n\leq k+1$, prove that we can play only finitely many moves.
$\mathbf{(b)}$ For which values of $k$ we can choose a natural number $n$ and distribute $n$ coins on the given board such that we can play infinitely many moves.
2024 Tuymaada Olympiad, 2
Chip and Dale play on a $100 \times 100$ table. In the beginning, a chess king stands in the upper left corner of the table. At each move the king is moved one square right, down or right-down diagonally. A player cannot move in the direction used by his opponent in the previous move. The players move in turn, Chip begins. The player that cannot move loses. Which player has a winning strategy?
2019 Romania Team Selection Test, 3
Alice and Bob play the following game. To start, Alice arranges the numbers $1,2,\ldots,n$ in some order in a row and then Bob chooses one of the numbers and places a pebble on it. A player's [i]turn[/i] consists of picking up and placing the pebble on an adjacent number under the restriction that the pebble can be placed on the number $k$ at most $k$ times. The two players alternate taking turns beginning with Alice. The first player who cannot make a move loses. For each positive integer $n$, determine who has a winning strategy.
2022 JHMT HS, 3
Andy, Bella, and Chris are playing in a trivia contest. Andy has $21,200$ points, Bella has $23,600$ points, and Chris has $11,200$ points. They have reached the final round, which works as follows:
[list]
[*] they are given a hint as to what the only question of the round will be about;
[*] then, each of them must bet some amount of their points---this bet must be a nonnegative integer (a player does not know any of the other players' bets, and this bet cannot be changed later on);
[*] then, they will be shown the question, where they will have $30$ seconds to individually submit a response (a player does not know any of the other players' answers);
[*] finally, once time runs out, their responses and bets are revealed---if a player's response is correct, then the number of points they bet will be added to their score, otherwise, it will be subtracted from their score, and whoever ends up having the most points wins the contest (if there is a tie for the win, then the winner is randomly decided).
[/list]
Suppose that the contestants are currently deciding their bets based on the hint that the question will be about history. Bella knows that she will likely get the question wrong, but she also knows that Andy, who dislikes history, will definitely get it wrong. Knowing this, Bella wagers an amount that will guarantee her a win. Find the maximum number of points Bella could have ended up with.
2017 Thailand TSTST, 6
$A$ and $B$ plays a game, with $A$ choosing a positive integer $n \in \{1, 2, \dots, 1001\} = S$. $B$ must guess the value of $n$ by choosing several subsets of $S$, then $A$ will tell $B$ how many subsets $n$ is in. $B$ will do this three times selecting $k_1, k_2$ then $k_3$ subsets of $S$ each.
What is the least value of $k_1 + k_2 + k_3$ such that $B$ has a strategy to correctly guess the value of $n$ no matter what $A$ chooses?
2016 Regional Competition For Advanced Students, 3
On the occasion of the 47th Mathematical Olympiad 2016 the numbers 47 and 2016 are written on the blackboard. Alice and Bob play the following game: Alice begins and in turns they choose two numbers $a$ and $b$ with $a > b$ written on the blackboard, whose difference $a-b$ is not yet written on the blackboard and write this difference additionally on the board. The game ends when no further move is possible. The winner is the player who made the last move.
Prove that Bob wins, no matter how they play.
(Richard Henner)
2024 Brazil EGMO TST, 2
Let \( m \) and \( n \) be positive integers. Kellem and Carmen play the following game: initially, the number $0$ is on the board. Starting with Kellem and alternating turns, they add powers of \( m \) to the previous number on the board, such that the new value on the board does not exceed \( n \). The player who writes \( n \) wins. Determine, for each pair \( (m, n) \), who has the winning strategy.
[b]Note:[/b] A power of \( m \) is a number of the form \( m^k \), where \( k \) is a non-negative integer.
2024 Iran MO (3rd Round), 2
Two intelligent people playing a game on the $1403 \times 1403$ table with $1403^2$ cells. The first one in each turn chooses a cell that didn't select before and draws a vertical line segment from the top to the bottom of the cell. The second person in each turn chooses a cell that didn't select before and draws a horizontal line segment from the left to the right of the cell. After $1403^2$ steps the game will be over. The first person gets points equal to the longest verticals line segment and analogously the second person gets point equal to the longest horizonal line segment. At the end the person who gets the more point will win the game. What will be the result of the game?
2014 BAMO, 3
Amy and Bob play a game. They alternate turns, with Amy going first. At the start of the game, there are $20$ cookies on a red plate and $14$ on a blue plate. A legal move consists of eating two cookies taken from one plate, or moving one cookie from the red plate to the blue plate (but never from the blue plate to the red plate). The last player to make a legal move wins; in other words, if it is your turn and you cannot make a legal move, you lose, and the other player has won. Which player can guarantee that they win no matter what strategy their opponent chooses? Prove that your answer is correct.
2022 Switzerland Team Selection Test, 8
Johann and Nicole are playing a game on the coordinate plane. First, Johann draws any polygon $\mathcal{S}$ and then Nicole can shift $\mathcal{S}$ to wherever she wants. Johann wins if there exists a point with coordinates $(x, y)$ in the interior of $\mathcal{S}$, where $x$ and $y$ are coprime integers. Otherwise, Nicole wins. Determine who has a winning strategy.
2022 Iran Team Selection Test, 6
Let $m,n$ and $a_1,a_2,\dots,a_m$ be arbitrary positive integers. Ali and Mohammad Play the following game. At each step, Ali chooses $b_1,b_2,\dots,b_m \in \mathbb{N}$ and then Mohammad chosses a positive integers $s$ and obtains a new sequence $\{c_i=a_i+b_{i+s}\}_{i=1}^m$, where $$b_{m+1}=b_1,\ b_{m+2}=b_2, \dots,\ b_{m+s}=b_s$$ The goal of Ali is to make all the numbers divisible by $n$ in a finite number of steps. FInd all positive integers $m$ and $n$ such that Ali has a winning strategy, no matter how the initial values $a_1, a_2,\dots,a_m$ are.
[hide=clarification] after we create the $c_i$ s, this sequence becomes the sequence that we continue playing on, as in it is our 'new' $a_i$[/hide]
Proposed by Shayan Gholami
2019 Baltic Way, 6
Alice and Bob play the following game. They write the expressions $x + y$, $x - y$, $x^2+xy+y^2$ and $x^2-xy+y^2$ each on a separate card. The four cards are shuffled and placed face down on a table. One of the cards is turned over, revealing the expression written on it, after which Alice chooses any two of the four cards, and gives the other two to Bob. All cards are then revealed. Now Alice picks one of the variables $x$ and $y$, assigns a real value to it, and tells Bob what value she assigned and to which variable. Then Bob assigns a real value to the other variable.
Finally, they both evaluate the product of the expressions on their two cards. Whoever gets the larger result, wins. Which player, if any, has a winning strategy?
2022 Iran MO (3rd Round), 5
Ali has $100$ cards with numbers $1,2,\ldots,100$. Ali and Amin play a game together. In each step, first Ali chooses a card from the remaining cards and Amin decides to pick that card for himself or throw it away. In the case that he picks the card, he can't pick the next card chosen by Amin, and he has to throw it away. This action repeats until when there is no remaining card for Ali.
Amin wants to pick cards in a way that the sum of the number of his cards is maximized and Ali wants to choose cards in a way that the sum of the number of Amin's cards is minimized. Find the most value of $k$ such that Amin can play in a way that is sure the sum of the number of his cards will be at least equal to $k$.
2018 European Mathematical Cup, 4
Let $n$ be a positive integer. Ana and Banana are playing the following game:
First, Ana arranges $2n$ cups in a row on a table, each facing upside-down. She then places a ball under a cup
and makes a hole in the table under some other cup. Banana then gives a finite sequence of commands to Ana,
where each command consists of swapping two adjacent cups in the row.
Her goal is to achieve that the ball has fallen into the hole during the game. Assuming Banana has no information
about the position of the hole and the position of the ball at any point, what is the smallest number of commands
she has to give in order to achieve her goal?
2010 Rioplatense Mathematical Olympiad, Level 3, 3
Alice and Bob play the following game. To start, Alice arranges the numbers $1,2,\ldots,n$ in some order in a row and then Bob chooses one of the numbers and places a pebble on it. A player's [i]turn[/i] consists of picking up and placing the pebble on an adjacent number under the restriction that the pebble can be placed on the number $k$ at most $k$ times. The two players alternate taking turns beginning with Alice. The first player who cannot make a move loses. For each positive integer $n$, determine who has a winning strategy.
2016 Tournament Of Towns, 6
Petya and Vasya play the following game. Petya conceives a polynomial $P(x)$ having integer coefficients. On each move, Vasya pays him a ruble, and calls an integer $a$ of his choice, which has not yet been called by him. Petya has to reply with the number of distinct integer solutions of the equation $P(x)=a$. The game continues until Petya is forced to repeat an answer. What minimal amount of rubles must Vasya pay in order to win?
[i](Anant Mudgal)[/i]
(Translated from [url=http://sasja.shap.homedns.org/Turniry/TG/index.html]here.[/url])
2018 Iran Team Selection Test, 2
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]
2018 Belarusian National Olympiad, 11.8
The vertices of the regular $n$-gon are marked. Two players play the following game: they, in turn, select a vertex and connect it by a segment to either the adjacent vertex or the center of the $n$-gon. The winner is a player if after his move it is possible to get any vertex from any other vertex moving along segments.
For each integer $n\geqslant 3$ determine who has a winning strategy.
2016 Germany Team Selection Test, 3
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.
2022 Lusophon Mathematical Olympiad, 2
Anselmo and Claudio are playing alternatively a game with fruits in a box. The box initially has $32$ fruits. Anselmo plays first and each turn consists of taking away $1$, $2$ or $3$ fruits from the box or taking away $\frac{2}{3}$ of the fruits from the box (this is only possible when the number of the fruits left in the box is a multiple of $3$). The player that takes away the last fruit from the box wins. Which of these two players has a winning strategy? How should that player play in order to win?