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.

Consider all $26^{26}$ words of length 26 in the Latin alphabet. Define the $\emph{weight}$ of a word as $1/(k+1)$, where $k$ is the number of letters not used in this word. Prove that the sum of the weights of all words is $3^{75}$. Proposed by Fedor Petrov, St. Petersburg State University

Let $n\ge 2$ be a given integer. Show that the number of strings of length $n$ consisting of $0'$s and $1'$s such that there are equal number of $00$ and $11$ blocks in each string is equal to \[2\binom{n-2}{\left \lfloor \frac{n-2}{2}\right \rfloor}\]

Let $a$ and $b$ be two positive integers. Prove that the integer \[a^2+\left\lceil\frac{4a^2}b\right\rceil\] is not a square. (Here $\lceil z\rceil$ denotes the least integer greater than or equal to $z$.) [i]Russia[/i]

Let $m, n, k$ be positive integers such that $k\le mn$. Let $S$ be the set consisting of the $(m + 1)$-by-$(n + 1)$ rectangular array of points on the Cartesian plane with coordinates $(i, j)$ where $i, j$ are integers satisfying $0\le i\le m$ and $0\le j\le n$. The diagram below shows the example where $m = 3$ and $n = 5$, with the points of $S$ indicated by black dots: [asy] unitsize(1cm); int m=3; int n=5; int xmin=-2; int xmax=7; for (int i=xmin+1; i<=xmax-1; i+=1) { draw((xmin+0.5,i)--(xmax-0.5,i),gray); draw((i,xmin+0.5)--(i,xmax-0.5),gray); } draw((xmin-0.25,0)--(xmax+0.25,0),black,Arrow(2mm)); draw((0,xmin-0.25)--(0,xmax+0.25),black,Arrow(2mm)); for (int i=0; i<=m; ++i) { for (int j=0; j<=n; ++j) { fill(shift(i,j)*scale(.1)*unitcircle); }} label("$x$",(xmax+0.25,0),E); label("$y$",(0,xmax+0.25),N); [/asy]

Let $f$ be a non-constant function from the set of positive integers into the set of positive integer, such that $a-b$ divides $f(a)-f(b)$ for all distinct positive integers $a$, $b$. Prove that there exist infinitely many primes $p$ such that $p$ divides $f(c)$ for some positive integer $c$. [i]Proposed by Juhan Aru, Estonia[/i]

We define a sequence $ \left(a_{1},a_{2},a_{3},\ldots \right)$ by \[ a_{n} \equal{} \frac {1}{n}\left(\left\lfloor\frac {n}{1}\right\rfloor \plus{} \left\lfloor\frac {n}{2}\right\rfloor \plus{} \cdots \plus{} \left\lfloor\frac {n}{n}\right\rfloor\right), \] where $\lfloor x\rfloor$ denotes the integer part of $x$. [b]a)[/b] Prove that $a_{n+1}>a_n$ infinitely often. [b]b)[/b] Prove that $a_{n+1}<a_n$ infinitely often. [i]Proposed by Johan Meyer, South Africa[/i]

A diabolical combination lock has $n$ dials (each with $c$ possible states), where $n,c>1$. The dials are initially set to states $d_1, d_2, \ldots, d_n$, where $0\le d_i\le c-1$ for each $1\le i\le n$. Unfortunately, the actual states of the dials (the $d_i$'s) are concealed, and the initial settings of the dials are also unknown. On a given turn, one may advance each dial by an integer amount $c_i$ ($0\le c_i\le c-1$), so that every dial is now in a state $d_i '\equiv d_i+c_i \pmod{c}$ with $0\le d_i ' \le c-1$. After each turn, the lock opens if and only if all of the dials are set to the zero state; otherwise, the lock selects a random integer $k$ and cyclically shifts the $d_i$'s by $k$ (so that for every $i$, $d_i$ is replaced by $d_{i-k}$, where indices are taken modulo $n$). Show that the lock can always be opened, regardless of the choices of the initial configuration and the choices of $k$ (which may vary from turn to turn), if and only if $n$ and $c$ are powers of the same prime. [i]Bobby Shen.[/i]

a)Prove that $\frac{1}{2}+\frac{1}{3}+...+\frac{1}{{{2}^{m}}}<m$, for any $m\in {{\mathbb{N}}^{*}}$. b)Let ${{p}_{1}},{{p}_{2}},...,{{p}_{n}}$ be the prime numbers less than ${{2}^{100}}$. Prove that $\frac{1}{{{p}_{1}}}+\frac{1}{{{p}_{2}}}+...+\frac{1}{{{p}_{n}}}<10$

For every \(i \in \mathbb{N}\) let \(A_i\), \(B_i\) and \(C_i\) be three finite and pairwise disjoint subsets of \(\mathbb{N}\). Suppose that for every pairwise disjoint sets \(A\), \(B\) and \( C\) with union \(\mathbb N\) there exists \(i\in \mathbb{N}\) such that \(A_i \subset A\), \(B_i \subset B\) and \(C_i \subset C\). Prove that there also exists a finite \(S\subset \mathbb{N}\) such that for every pairwise disjoint sets \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) with union $\mathbb N$ there exists \(i\in S\) such that \(A_i \subset A\), \(B_i \subset B\) and \(C_i \subset C\). [i]Submitted by András Imolay, Budapest[/i]

Let $a$ be a fixed positive integer and $(e_n)$ the sequence, which is defined by $e_0=1$ and $$ e_n=a + \prod_{k=0}^{n-1} e_k$$ for $n \geq 1$. Prove that (a) There exist infinitely many prime numbers that divide one element of the sequence. (b) There exists one prime number that does not divide an element of the sequence. (Theresia Eisenkölbl)

Prove that for every given positive integer $k$, there exist infinitely many $n$, such that $2^{n}+3^{n}-1, 2^{n}+3^{n}-2,\ldots, 2^{n}+3^{n}-k$ are all composite numbers.

Find all positive integers $n$ such that for any integer $k$ there exists an integer $a$ for which $a^3+a-k$ is divisible by $n$. [i]Warut Suksompong, Thailand[/i]

Let $M_n$ be the $n\times n$ matrix with entries as follows: for $1\leq i \leq n$, $m_{i,i}=10$; for $1\leq i \leq n-1, m_{i+1,i}=m_{i,i+1}=3$; all other entries in $M_n$ are zero. Let $D_n$ be the determinant of matrix $M_n$. Then $\displaystyle \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \dfrac{1}{8D_n+1}$ can be represented as $\frac{p}{q}$, where $p$ and $q$ are relatively prime positive integers. Find $p+q$. Note: The determinant of the $1\times 1$ matrix $[a]$ is $a$, and the determinant of the $2\times 2$ matrix $\left[ \begin{array}{cc} a & b \\ c & d \end{array} \right]=ad-bc$; for $n\geq 2$, the determinant of an $n\times n$ matrix with first row or first column $a_1\ a_2\ a_3 \dots\ a_n$ is equal to $a_1C_1 - a_2C_2 + a_3C_3 - \dots + (-1)^{n+1} a_nC_n$, where $C_i$ is the determinant of the $(n-1)\times (n-1)$ matrix found by eliminating the row and column containing $a_i$.