Found problems: 117
Stekel and Prick play a game on an $ m \times n$ board, where $m$ and $n$ are positive are integers. They alternate turns, with Stekel starting. Spine bets on his turn, he always takes a pawn on a square where there is no pawn yet. Prick does his turn the same, but his pawn must always come into a square adjacent to the square that Spike just placed a pawn in on his previous turn. Prick wins like the whole board is full of pawns. Spike wins if Prik can no longer move a pawn on his turn, while there is still at least one empty square on the board. Determine for all pairs $(m, n)$ who has a winning strategy.
At the start of a game there are three boxes with $2008, 2009$ and $2010$ game pieces
Anja and Bernd play in turns according to the following rule:
[i]When it is your turn, select two boxes, empty them and then distribute the pieces from the third box to the three boxes, such that no box may remain empty.If you can no longer complete a turn, you have lost. [/i]
Who has a winning strategy when Anja starts?
Julian and Johan are playing a game with an even number of cards, say $2n$ cards, ($n \in Z_{>0}$). Every card is marked with a positive integer. The cards are shuffled and are arranged in a row, in such a way that the numbers are visible. The two players take turns picking cards. During a turn, a player can pick either the rightmost or the leftmost card. Johan is the first player to pick a card (meaning Julian will have to take the last card). Now, a player’s score is the sum of the numbers on the cards that player acquired during the game.
Prove that Johan can always get a score that is at least as high as Julian’s.
Rosa and Sara play with a triangle $ABC$, right at $B$. Rosa begins by marking two interior points of the hypotenuse $AC$, then Sara marks an interior point of the hypotenuse $AC$ different from those of Rosa. Then, from these three points the perpendiculars to the sides $AB$ and $BC$ are drawn, forming the following figure.
[img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/9/9/c964bbacc4a5960bee170865cc43902410e504.png[/img]
Sara wins if the area of the shaded surface is equal to the area of the unshaded surface, in other case wins Rosa. Determine who of the two has a winning strategy.
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)
Two players $A$ and $B$ take turns taking stones from a pile of $N$ stones. They play in the order $A$, $B$, $A$, $B$, $A$, $....$, $A$ starts the game and the one who takes out the last stone loses.$ B$ can serve on each play $1$, $2$ or 3 stones, while$ A$ can draw $2, 3, 4$ stones or $1$ stone in each turn f it is the last one in the pile. Determine for what values of $N$ does $A$ have a winning strategy, and for what values the winning strategy is $B$'s.
Two players play a game on an infinite board that consists of unit squares. Player $I$ chooses a square and marks it with $O$. Then player $II$ chooses another square and marks it with $X$. They play until one of the players marks a whole row or a whole column of five consecutive squares, and this player wins the game. If no player can achieve this, the result of the game is a tie. Show that player $II$ can prevent player $I$ from winning.
Let $n\ge 2$ be an integer. Ariane and Bérénice play a game on the number of the residue classes modulo $n$. At the beginning there is the residue class $1$ on each piece of paper. It is the turn of the player whose turn it is to replace the current residue class $x$ with either $x + 1$ or by $2x$. The two players take turns, with Ariane starting.
Ariane wins if the residue class $0$ is reached during the game. Bérénice wins if she can prevent that permanently.
Depending on $n$, determine which of the two has a winning strategy.
Jose and Maria play the following game: Maria writes $2019$ positive integers different on the blackboard. Jose deletes some of them (possibly none, but not all) and write to the left of each of the remaining numbers a sign $+$or a sign $-$. Then the sum written on the board is calculated. If the result is a multiple of $2019$, Jose wins the game, if not, Maria wins. Determine which of the two has a winning strategy.
There are $4$ piles of stones with the following quantities: $1004$, $1005$, $2009$ and $2010$.
A legitimate move is to remove a stone from each from $3$ different piles. Two players $A$ and $B$ play in turns. $A$ begins the game . The player who, on his turn, cannot make a legitimate move, loses.
Determine which of the players has a winning strategy and give a strategy for that player.
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?
a. View the second-degree quadratic equation $x^2+? x +? = 0$
Two players successively put an integer each at the location of a question mark. Show that the second player can always ensure that the quadratic gets two integer solutions.
Note: we say that the quadratic also has two integer solutions, even when they are equal (for example if they are both equal to $3$).
b.View the third-degree equation $x^3 +? x^2 +? x +? = 0$
Three players successively put an integer each at the location of a question mark. The equation appears to have three integer (possibly again the same) solutions. It is given that two players each put a $3$ in the place of a question mark. What number did the third player put? Determine that number and the place where it is placed and prove that only one number is possible.
There are two bowls on a table, one white and one black. In the white bowl there $2019$ balls.
Players $A$ and $B$ play a game where they make every other move ($A$ begins).
One move consists is
$\bullet$ to move one or your balls from one bowl to the other, or
$\bullet$ to remove a ball from the white bowl,
with the condition that the resulting position (that is, the number of bullets in the two bowls) have not occurred before. The player who has no valid move to make loses.
Can any of the players be sure to win? If so, which one?
An integer is given $N> 1$. Arne and Britt play the following game:
(1) Arne says a positive integer $A$.
(2) Britt says an integer $B> 1$ that is either a divisor of $A$ or a multiple of $A$. ($A$ itself is a possibility.)
(3) Arne says a new number $A$ that is either $B - 1, B$ or $B + 1$.
The game continues by repeating steps 2 and 3. Britt wins if she is okay with being told the number $N$ before the $50$th has been said. Otherwise, Arne wins.
a) Show that Arne has a winning strategy if $N = 10$.
b) Show that Britt has a winning strategy if $N = 24$.
c) For which $N$ does Britt have a winning strategy?
Mari and Yuri play the next play. At first, there are two piles on the table, with $m$ and $n$ candies, respectively. At each turn, players eats one pile of candy from the table and distribute another pile of candy into two non-empty parts ,. Everything is done in turn and wins the player who can no longer share the pile (when there is only one candy left). Which player will win if both use the optimal strategy and Mari makes the first move?
There are two piles of cards, one with $n$ cards and the other with $m$ cards.
$A$ and $B$ play alternately, performing one of the following actions in each turn. following operations:
a) Remove a card from a pile.
b) Remove one card from each pile.
c) Move a card from one pile to the other.
Player $A$ always starts the game and whoever takes the last one letter wins . Determine if there is a winning strategy based on $m$ and $n$, so that one of the players following her can win always.
A fraction with $1010$ squares in the numerator and $1011$ squares in the denominator serves as a game board for a two player game. $$\frac{\square + \square +...+ \square}{\square + \square +...+ \square+ \square}$$ Players take turns in moves. In each turn, the player chooses one of the numbers $1, 2,. . . , 2021$ and inserts it in any empty field. Each number can only be used once. The starting player wins if the value of the fraction after all the fields is filled differs from number $1$ by less than $10^{-6}$. Otherwise, the other player wins. Decide which of the players has a winning strategy.
(Pavel Šalom)
Let $n \ge 4$ and $k$ be positive integers. We consider $n$ lines in the plane between which there are not two parallel nor three concurrent. In each of the $\frac{n(n-1)}{2}$ points of intersection of these lines, $k$ coins are placed. Ana and Beto play the following game in turns: each player, in turn, chooses one of those points that does not share one of the $n$ lines with the point chosen immediately before by the other player, and removes a coin from that point. Ana starts and can choose any point. The player who cannot make his move loses. Determine based on $n$ and $k$ who has a winning strategy.
There are $11$ empty boxes and a pile of stones. Two players play the following game by alternating moves: In one move a player takes $10$ stones from the pile and places them into boxes, taking care to place no more than one stone in any box. The winner is the player after whose move there appear $21$ stones in one of the boxes for the first time. If a player wants to guarantee that they win the game, should they go first or second? Explain your reasoning.
Andrew and Barry play the following game: there are two heaps with $a$ and $b$ pebbles, respectively. In the first round Barry chooses a positive integer $k,$ and Andrew takes away $k$ pebbles from one of the two heaps (if $k$ is bigger than the number of pebbles in the heap, he takes away the complete heap). In the second round, the roles are reversed: Andrew chooses a positive integer and Barry takes away the pebbles from one of the two heaps. This goes on, in each round the two players are reversing the roles. The player that takes the last pebble loses the game.
Which player has a winning strategy?
[i]Submitted by András Imolay, Budapest[/i]
Jesse and Tjeerd are playing a game. Jesse has access to $n\ge 2$ stones. There are two boxes: in the black box there is room for half of the stones (rounded down) and in the white box there is room for half of the stones (rounded up). Jesse and Tjeerd take turns, with Jesse starting. Jesse grabs in his turn, always one new stone, writes a positive real number on the stone and places put him in one of the boxes that isn't full yet. Tjeerd sees all these numbers on the stones in the boxes and on his turn may move any stone from one box to the other box if it is not yet full, but he may also choose to do nothing. The game stops when both boxes are full. If then the total value of the stones in the black box is greater than the total value of the stones in the white box, Jesse wins; otherwise win Tjeerd. For every $n \ge 2$, determine who can definitely win (and give a corresponding winning strategy).
Let $(a,b)$ be a pair of natural numbers. Henning and Paul play the following game. At the beginning there are two piles of $a$ and $b$ coins respectively. We say that $(a,b)$ is the [i]starting position [/i]of the game. Henning and Paul play with the following rules:
$\bullet$ They take turns alternatively where Henning begins.
$\bullet$ In every step each player either takes a positive integer number of coins from one of the two piles or takes same natural number of coins from both piles.
$\bullet$ The player how take the last coin wins.
Let $A$ be the set of all positive integers like $a$ for which there exists a positive integer $b<a$ such that Paul has a wining strategy for the starting position $(a,b)$. Order the elements of $A$ to construct a sequence $a_1<a_2<a_3<\dots$
$(a)$ Prove that $A$ has infinity many elements.
$(b)$ Prove that the sequence defined by $m_k:=a_{k+1}-a_{k}$ will never become periodic. (This means the sequence $m_{k_0+k}$ will not be periodic for any choice of $k_0$)
Two players play the following game: there are two heaps of tokens, and they take turns to pick some tokens from them. The winner of the game is the player who takes away the last token. If the number of tokens in the two heaps are $A$ and $B$ at a given moment, the player whose turn it is can take away a number of tokens that is a multiple of $A$ or a multiple of $B$ from one of the heaps.
Find those pair of integers $(k,n)$ for which the second player has a winning strategy, if the initial number of tokens is $k$ in the first heap and $n$ in the second heap.
[i]Proposed by Dömötör Pálvölgyi, Budapest[/i]
Let $m$ and $n$ be natural numbers with $mn$ even. Jetze is going to cover an $m \times n$ board (consisting of $m$ rows and $n$ columns) with dominoes, so that every domino covers exactly two squares, dominos do not protrude or overlap, and all squares are covered by a domino. Merlin then moves all the dominoe color red or blue on the board. Find the smallest non-negative integer $V$ (in terms of $m$ and $n$) so that Merlin can always ensure that in each row the number squares covered by a red domino and the number of squares covered by a blue one dominoes are not more than $V$, no matter how Jetze covers the board.
Batman, Robin, and The Joker are in three of the vertex cells in a square $2025 \times 2025$ board, such that Batman and Robin are on the same diagonal (picture). In each round, first The Joker moves to an adjacent cell (having a common side), without exiting the board. Then in the same round Batman and Robin move to an adjacent cell. The Joker wins if he reaches the fourth "target" vertex cell (marked T). Batman and Robin win if they catch The Joker i.e. at least one of them is on the same cell as The Joker.
If in each move all three can see where the others moved, who has a winning strategy, The Joker, or Batman and Robin? Explain the answer.
[b]Comment.[/b] Batman and Robin decide their common strategy at the beginning.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/PeLBQNt.png[/img]