Let $n$ be a positive integer. A [i]Nordic[/i] square is an $n \times n$ board containing all the integers from $1$ to $n^2$ so that each cell contains exactly one number. Two different cells are considered adjacent if they share a common side. Every cell that is adjacent only to cells containing larger numbers is called a [i]valley[/i]. An [i]uphill path[/i] is a sequence of one or more cells such that: (i) the first cell in the sequence is a valley, (ii) each subsequent cell in the sequence is adjacent to the previous cell, and (iii) the numbers written in the cells in the sequence are in increasing order. Find, as a function of $n$, the smallest possible total number of uphill paths in a Nordic square. Author: Nikola Petrović

The cells of a $100 \times 100$ table are colored white. In one move, it is allowed to select some $99$ cells from the same row or column and recolor each of them with the opposite color. What is the smallest number of moves needed to get a table with a chessboard coloring? [i]S. Berlov[/i]

Tanya and Serezha take turns putting chips in empty squares of a chessboard. Tanya starts with a chip in an arbitrary square. At every next move, Serezha must put a chip in the column where Tanya put her last chip, while Tanya must put a chip in the row where Serezha put his last chip. The player who cannot make a move loses. Which of the players has a winning strategy? [i]Proposed by A. Golovanov[/i]

Each cell of an $m\times n$ board is filled with some nonnegative integer. Two numbers in the filling are said to be [i]adjacent[/i] if their cells share a common side. (Note that two numbers in cells that share only a corner are not adjacent). The filling is called a [i]garden[/i] if it satisfies the following two conditions: (i) The difference between any two adjacent numbers is either $0$ or $1$. (ii) If a number is less than or equal to all of its adjacent numbers, then it is equal to $0$. Determine the number of distinct gardens in terms of $m$ and $n$.

A [i]stick[/i] is defined as a $1 \times k$ or $k\times 1$ rectangle for any integer $k \ge 1$. We wish to partition the cells of a $2022 \times 2022$ chessboard into $m$ non-overlapping sticks, such that any two of these $m$ sticks share at most one unit of perimeter. Determine the smallest $m$ for which this is possible. [i]Holden Mui[/i]

How many paths are there from$ A$ to the line $BC$ if the path does not go through any vertex twice and always moves to the left? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/e/6/a4bc3a9decc06eaeed6f7e99cb58f7b2524471.jpg[/img]

A "Hishgad" lottery ticket contains the numbers $1$ to $mn$, arranged in some order in a table with $n$ rows and $m$ columns. It is known that the numbers in each row increase from left to right and the numbers in each column increase from top to bottom. An example for $n=3$ and $m=4$: [asy] size(3cm); Label[][] numbers = {{"$1$", "$2$", "$3$", "$9$"}, {"$4$", "$6$", "$7$", "$10$"}, {"$5$", "$8$", "$11$", "$12$"}}; for (int i=0; i<5;++i) { draw((i,0)--(i,3)); } for (int i=0; i<4;++i) { draw((0,i)--(4,i)); } for (int i=0; i<4;++i){ for (int j=0; j<3;++j){ label(numbers[2-j][i], (i+0.5, j+0.5)); }} [/asy] When the ticket is bought the numbers are hidden, and one must "scratch" the ticket to reveal them. How many cells does it always suffice to reveal in order to determine the whole table with certainty?

Let $n \geq 2$ be an integer. A lead soldier is moving across the unit squares of a $n \times n$ grid, starting from the corner square. Before each move to the neighboring square, the lead soldier can (but doesn't need to) turn left or right. Determine the smallest number of turns, which it needs to do, to visit every square of the grid at least once. At the beginning the soldier's back is faced at the edge of the grid.

A strip consists of $n$ squares which are numerated in their order by integers $1,2,3,..., n$. In the beginning, one square is empty while each remaining square contains one piece. Whenever a square contains a piece and its some neighbouring square contains another piece while the square immediately following the neighbouring square is empty, one may raise the first piece over the second one to the empty square, removing the second piece from the strip. Find all possibilites which square can be initially empty, if it is possible to reach a state where the strip contains only one piece and a) $n = 2008$, b) $n = 2009$.

Points $A,B,C,D$ have been marked on checkered paper (see fig.). Find the tangent of the angle $ABD$. [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/6/1/eeb98ccdee801361f9f66b8f6b2da4714e659f.png[/img]

Given a 4×4 grid of points, the points at two opposite corners are denoted $A$ and $D$. We need to choose two other points $ B$ and $C$ such that the six pairwise distances of these four points are all distinct. (a) How many such quadruples of points are there? (b) How many such quadruples of points are non-congruent? (c) If each point is assigned a pair of coordinates $(x_i,y_i)$, prove that the sum of the expressions $|x_i-x_j |+|y_i-y_j|$ over all six pairs of points in a quadruple is constant.

Let $a$, $b$, $n$ be positive integers such that $a + b \leq n^2$. Alice and Bob play a game on an (initially uncoloured) $n\times n$ grid as follows: - First, Alice paints $a$ cells green. - Then, Bob paints $b$ other (i.e.uncoloured) cells blue. Alice wins if she can find a path of non-blue cells starting with the bottom left cell and ending with the top right cell (where a path is a sequence of cells such that any two consecutive ones have a common side), otherwise Bob wins. Determine, in terms of $a$, $b$ and $n$, who has a winning strategy.

Let $n$ be a positive integer. A [i]Nordic[/i] square is an $n \times n$ board containing all the integers from $1$ to $n^2$ so that each cell contains exactly one number. Two different cells are considered adjacent if they share a common side. Every cell that is adjacent only to cells containing larger numbers is called a [i]valley[/i]. An [i]uphill path[/i] is a sequence of one or more cells such that: (i) the first cell in the sequence is a valley, (ii) each subsequent cell in the sequence is adjacent to the previous cell, and (iii) the numbers written in the cells in the sequence are in increasing order. Find, as a function of $n$, the smallest possible total number of uphill paths in a Nordic square. Author: Nikola Petrović

Chris and Michael play a game on a board which is a rhombus of side length $n$ (a positive integer) consisting of two equilateral triangles, each of which has been divided into equilateral triangles of side length $ 1$. Each has a single token, initially on the leftmost and rightmost squares of the board, called the “home” squares (the illustration shows the case $n = 4$). [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/e/b/8135203c22ce77c03c144850099ad1c575edb8.png[/img] A move consists of moving your token to an adjacent triangle (two triangles are adjacent only if they share a side). To win the game, you must either capture your opponent’s token (by moving to the triangle it occupies), or move on to your opponent’s home square. Supposing that Chris moves first, which, if any, player has a winning strategy?

In an $m \times n$ grid, each square is either filled or not filled. For each square, its [i]value[/i] is defined as $0$ if it is filled and is defined as the number of neighbouring filled cells if it is not filled. Here, two squares are neighbouring if they share a common vertex or side. Let $f(m,n)$ be the largest total value of squares in the grid. Determine the minimal real constant $C$ such that $$\frac{f(m,n)}{mn} \le C$$holds for any positive integers $m,n$ [i]CSJL[/i]