Found problems: 117
For integers $m,n \ge 3$ we consider a $m \times n$ rectangular frame, consisting of the $2m+2n-4$ boundary squares of a $m \times n$ rectangle.
Renate and Erhard play the following game on this frame, with Renate to start the game. In a move, a player colours a rectangular area consisting of a single or several white squares. If there are any more white squares, they have to form a connected region. The player who moves last wins the game.
Determine all pairs $(m,n)$ for which Renate has a winning strategy.
Arnulfo and Berenice play the following game: One of the two starts by writing a number from $ 1$ to $30$, the other chooses a number from $ 1$ to $30$ and adds it to the initial number, the first player chooses a number from $ 1$ to $30$ and adds it to the previous result, they continue doing the same until someone manages to add $2018$. When Arnulfo was about to start, Berenice told him that it was unfair, because whoever started had a winning strategy, so the numbers had better change. So they asked the following question:
Adding chosen numbers from $1 $ to $a$, until reaching the number $ b$, what conditions must meet $a$ and $ b$ so that the first player does not have a winning strategy?
Indicate if Arnulfo and Berenice are right and answer the question asked by them.
The vertices of a regular polygon with $N$ sides are marked on the blackboard. Ana and Beto play alternately, Ana begins. Each player, in turn, must do the following:
$\bullet$ join two vertices with a segment, without cutting another already marked segment; or
$\bullet$ delete a vertex that does not belong to any marked segment.
The player who cannot take any action on his turn loses the game. Determine which of the two players can guarantee victory:
a) if $N=28$
b) if $N=29$
Player Zero and Player One play a game on a $n \times n$ board ($n \ge 1$). The columns of this $n \times n$ board are numbered $1,2,4,\dots,2^{n-1}$. Turn my turn, the players put their own number in one of the free cells (thus Player Zero puts a $0$ and Player One puts a $1$). Player Zero begins. When the board is filled, the game ends and each row yields a (reverse binary) number obtained by adding the values of the columns with a $1$ in that row. For instance, when $n=4$, a row with $0101$ yields the number $0 \cdot1+1 \cdot 2+0 \cdot 4+1 \cdot 8=10$.
a) For which natural numbers $n$ can Player One always ensure that at least one of the row numbers is divisible by $4$?
b) For which natural numbers $n$ can Player One always ensure that at least one of the row numbers is divisible by $3$?
The vertices of a regular polygon with $N$ sides are marked on the blackboard. Ana and Beto play alternately, Ana begins. Each player, in turn, must do the following:
$\bullet$ join two vertices with a segment, without cutting another already marked segment; or
$\bullet$ delete a vertex that does not belong to any marked segment.
The player who cannot take any action on his turn loses the game. Determine which of the two players can guarantee victory:
a) if $N=28$
b) if $N=29$
Let $m$ and $n$ be positive integers. Player $A$ has a field of $m \times n$, and player $B$ has a $1 \times n$ field (the first is the number of rows). On the first move, each player places on each square of his field white or black chip as he pleases. At each next on the move, each player can change the color of randomly chosen pieces on your field to the opposite, provided that in no row for this move will not change more than one chip (it is allowed not to change not a single chip). The moves are made in turn, player $A$ starts. Player $A$ wins if there is such a position that in the only row player $B$'s squares, from left to right, are the same as in some row of player's field $A$.
Prove that player $A$ has the ability to win for any game of player $B$ if and only if $n <2m$.
Given $n \ge 2$ points on a circle, Alice and Bob play the following game. Initially, a tile is placed on one of the points and no segment is drawn.
The players alternate in turns, with Alice to start. In a turn, a player moves the tile from its current position $P$ to one of the $n-1$ other points $Q$ and draws the segment $PQ$. This move is not allowed if the segment $PQ$ is already drawn. If a player cannot make a move, the game is over and the opponent wins.
Determine, for each $n$, which of the two players has a winning strategy.
Ana and Beto are playing a game. Ana writes a whole number on the board. Beto then has the right to erase the number and add $2$ to it, or erase the number and subtract $3$, as many times as he wants. Beto wins if he can get $2021$ after a finite number of stages; otherwise, Ana wins. Which player has a winning strategy?
Initially, the numbers $1, 2, \dots, 2024$ are written on a blackboard. Trixi and Nana play a game, taking alternate turns. Trixi plays first.
The player whose turn it is chooses two numbers $a$ and $b$, erases both, and writes their (possibly negative) difference $a-b$ on the blackboard. This is repeated until only one number remains on the blackboard after $2023$ moves. Trixi wins if this number is divisible by $3$, otherwise Nana wins.
Which of the two has a winning strategy?
[i](Birgit Vera Schmidt)[/i]
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.
Two pupils $A$ and $B$ play the following game. They begin with a pile of $1998$ matches and $A$ plays first. A player who is on turn must take a nonzero square number of matches from the pile. The winner is the one who makes the last move. Decide who has the winning strategy and give one such strategy.
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?
Ana and Natalia alternately play on a $ n \times n$ board (Ana rolls first and $n> 1$). At the beginning, Ana's token is placed in the upper left corner and Natalia's in the lower right corner. A turn consists of moving the corresponding piece in any of the four directions (it is not allowed to move diagonally), without leaving the board. The winner is whoever manages to place their token on the opponent's token. Determine if either of them can secure victory after a finite number of turns.
Three players $A, B$ and $C$ take turns taking stones from a pile of $N$ stones. They play in the order $A$, $B$, $C$, $A$, $B$, $C$, $....$, $A$ starts the game and the one who takes the last stone loses. Players $A$ and $C$ They form a team against $B$, they agree on a strategy joint. $B$ can take $1, 2, 3, 4$ or $5$ stones on each move, while that $A$ and $C$ can each draw $1, 2$ or $3$ stones in each turn. Determine for which values of $N$ have winning strategies $A$ and $C$ , and for what values the winning strategy is $B$'s.
A game is played with two heaps of $p$ and $q$ stones. Two players alternate playing, with $A$ starting. A player in turn takes away one heap and divides the other heap into two smaller ones. A player who cannot perform a legal move loses the game. For which values of $p$ and $q$ can $A$ force a victory?
$3.$ Let $S$ be the set of all positive integers from $1$ to $100$ included. Two players play a game. The first player removes any $k$ numbers he wants, from $S$. The second player's goal is to pick $k$ different numbers, such that their sum is $100$. Which player has the winning strategy if :
$a)$ $k=9$?
$b)$ $k=8$?
Alice and Bob are playing the following game:
They take turns writing on the board natural numbers not exceeding $2018$ (to write the number twice is forbidden).
Alice begins. A player wins if after his or her move there appear three numbers on the board which are in arithmetic progression.
Which player has a winning strategy?
Ward and Gabrielle are playing a game on a large sheet of paper. At the start of the game, there are $999$ ones on the sheet of paper. Ward and Gabrielle each take turns alternatingly, and Ward has the first turn.
During their turn, a player must pick two numbers a and b on the sheet such that $gcd(a, b) = 1$, erase these numbers from the sheet, and write the number $a + b$ on the sheet. The first player who is not able to do so, loses.
Determine which player can always win this game.
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).
The game [i]Clobber [/i] is played by two on a strip of $2k$ squares. At the beginning there is a piece on each square, the pieces of both players stand alternatingly. At each move the player shifts one of his pieces to the neighbouring square that holds a piece of his opponent and removes his opponent’s piece from the table. The moves are made in turn, the player whose opponent cannot move anymore is the winner.
Prove that if for some $k$ the player who does not start the game has the winning strategy, then for $k + 1$ and $k + 2$ the player who makes the first move has the winning strategy.
Ana and Beta play a turn-based game on a $m \times n$ board. Ana begins. At the beginning, there is a stone in the lower left square and the objective is to move it to the upper right corner. A move consists of the player moving the stone to the right or up as many squares as the player wants. Find all the values of $(m, n)$ for which Ana can guarantee victory.
All the cells in a $8* 8$ board are colored white. Omar and Asaad play the following game: in the beginning Omar colors $n$ cells red, then Asaad chooses $4$ rows and $4$ columns and colors them black. Omar wins if there is at least one red cell. Find the least possible value for n such that Omar can always win regardless of Asaad's move.
There are $k$ heaps on the table, each containing a different positive number of stones. Juri and Mari make moves alternatingly, Juri starts. On each move, the player making the move has to pick a heap and remove one or more stones in it from the table; in addition, the player is allowed to distribute any number of remaining stones from that heap in any way between other non-empty heaps. The player to remove the last stone from the table wins. For which positive integers $k$ does Juri have a winning strategy for any initial state that satisfies the conditions?
We have a square of side $1$ and a number $\ell$ such that $0 <\ell <\sqrt2$. Two players $A$ and $B$, in turn, draw in the square an open segment (without its two ends) of length $\ell $, starts A. Each segment after the first cannot have points in common with the previously drawn segments. He loses the player who cannot make his play. Determine if either player has a winning strategy.
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.