$20$ numbers are written on the board $1, 2, ... ,20$. Two players are putting signs before the numbers in turn ($+$ or $-$). The first wants to obtain the minimal possible absolute value of the sum. What is the maximal value of the absolute value of the sum that can be achieved by the second player?

The real numbers $x, y$ and $z$ are such that $x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 1$. a) Determine the smallest and the largest possible values of $xy + yz - xz$. b) Prove that there does not exist a triple $(x, y, z)$ of rational numbers, which attains any of the two values in a).

Let $a, b, c$ be nonzero real numbers such that $a + b + c = 0$. Determine the maximum possible value of $\frac{a^2b^2c^2}{ (a^2 + ab + b^2)(b^2 + bc + c^2)(c^2 + ca + a^2)}$ .

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

What is the greatest number of rays in space beginning at one point and forming pairwise obtuse angles?

Every square of $1000 \times 1000$ board is colored black or white. It is known that exists one square $10 \times 10$ such that all squares inside it are black and one square $10 \times 10$ such that all squares inside are white. For every square $K$ $10 \times 10$ we define its power $m(K)$ as an absolute value of difference between number of white and black squares $1 \times 1$ in square $K$. Let $T$ be a square $10 \times 10$ which has minimum power among all squares $10 \times 10$ in this board. Determine maximal possible value of $m(T)$

Let $a$ and $b$ be positive integers not divisible by $5$. A sequence of integers is constructed as follows: the first term is $5$, and every consequent term is obtained by multiplying its precedent by $a$ and adding $b$. (For example, if $a = 2$ and $b = 4$, the first three terms are $5,14,32$.) What is the maximum possible number of primes that can occur before encoutering the first composite term?

$n$ straight lines are drawn in a plane. They divide the plane onto several parts. Some of the parts are painted. Not a pair of painted parts has non-zero length common bound. Prove that the number of painted parts is not more than $\frac{n^2 + n}{3}$.

Find all functions $f : R \to R$ which satisfy $f(x) = max_{y\in R} (2xy - f(y))$ for all $x \in R$.

The natural numbers $ a_1 $, $ a_2 $, $ \dots $, $ a_n $ satisfy the condition $ 1 / a_1 + 1 / a_2 + \ldots + 1 / a_n = 1 $. Prove that all these numbers do not exceed $$ n ^ {2 ^ n} $$

A [i]trio [/i] is a set of three distinct integers such that two of the numbers are divisors or multiples of the third. Which [i]trio [/i] contained in $\{1, 2, ... , 2002\}$ has the largest possible sum? Find all [i]trios [/i] with the maximum sum.

Let $O$ be the center of the concentric circles $C_1,C_2$ of radii $3$ and $5$ respectively. Let $A\in C_1, B\in C_2$ and $C$ point so that triangle $ABC$ is equilateral. Find the maximum length of $ [OC] $.

Hugo places a chess piece on the top left square of a $20 \times 20$ chessboard and makes $10$ moves with it. On each of these $10$ moves, he moves the piece either one square horizontally (left or right) or one square vertically (up or down). After the last move, he draws an $X$ on the square that the piece occupies. When Hugo plays the game over and over again, what is the largest possible number of squares that could eventually be marked with an $X$? Prove that your answer is correct.

Consider the set $A = \{1, 2, ..., n\}$. For each integer $k$, let $r_k$ be the largest quantity of different elements of $A$ that we can choose so that the difference between two numbers chosen is always different from $k$. Determine the highest value possible of $r_k$, where $1 \le k \le \frac{n}{2}$

Let $a,b,c$ be positive real numbers so that $a+b+c = \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}$. Find the maximum value of $$27abc+a\sqrt{a^2+2bc}+b\sqrt{b^2+2ca}+c\sqrt{c^2+2ab}.$$

Let $n$ be a fixed positive integer and let $x, y$ be positive integers such that $xy = nx+ny$. Determine the minimum and the maximum of $x$ in terms of $n$.

On a stormy night ten guests came to dinner party and left their shoes outside the room in order to keep the carpet clean. After the dinner there was a blackout, and the gusts leaving one by one, put on at random, any pair of shoes big enough for their feet. (Each pair of shoes stays together). Any guest who could not find a pair big enough spent the night there. What is the largest number of guests who might have had to spend the night there?

Let \[ f(x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4,x_5,x_6,x_7)=x_1x_2x_4+x_2x_3x_5+x_3x_4x_6+x_4x_5x_7+x_5x_6x_1+x_6x_7x_2+x_7x_1x_3 \] be defined for non-negative real numbers $x_1,x_2,\dots,x_7$ with sum $1$. Prove that $f(x_1,x_2,\dots,x_7)$ has a maximum value and find that value.

Given the following matrix $$\begin{pmatrix} 11& 17 & 25& 19& 16\\ 24 &10 &13 & 15&3\\ 12 &5 &14& 2&18\\ 23 &4 &1 &8 &22 \\ 6&20&7 &21&9 \end{pmatrix},$$ choose five of these elements, no two from the same row or column, in such a way that the minimum of these elements is as large as possible.

Find maximal value of positive integer $n$ such that there exists subset of $S=\{1,2,...,2001\}$ with $n$ elements, such that equation $y=2x$ does not have solutions in set $S \times S$

The pupil is training in the square equation solution. Having the recurrent equation solved, he stops, if it doesn't have two roots, or solves the next equation, with the free coefficient equal to the greatest root, the coefficient at $x$ equal to the least root, and the coefficient at $x^2$ equal to $1$. Prove that the process cannot be infinite. What maximal number of the equations he will have to solve?

A $6 \times 6$ board is given such that each unit square is either red or green. It is known that there are no $4$ adjacent unit squares of the same color in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line. A $2 \times 2$ subsquare of the board is [i]chesslike[/i] if it has one red and one green diagonal. Find the maximal possible number of chesslike squares on the board. [i]Proposed by Nikola Velov[/i]

Given two positive numbers $a,b$ such that $a^3 +b^3 = a^5 +b^5$, then the greatest value of $M = a^2 + b^2 - ab$ is (A): $\frac14$ (B): $\frac12$ (C): $2$ (D): $1$ (E): None of the above.

Among all orthogonal projections of a regular tetrahedron to all possible planes, find the projection of the greatest area.

Nils is playing a game with a bag originally containing $n$ red and one black marble. He begins with a fortune equal to $1$. In each move he picks a real number $x$ with $0 \le x \le y$, where his present fortune is $y$. Then he draws a marble from the bag. If the marble is red, his fortune increases by $x$, but if it is black, it decreases by $x$. The game is over after $n$ moves when there is only a single marble left. In each move Nils chooses $x$ so that he ensures a final fortune greater or equal to $Y$ . What is the largest possible value of $Y$?