Problems

Age
Difficulty
Found: 25

Two clowns A and B are playing the following game. They have 33 tomatoes on a plate. One of the tomatoes is rotten and both clowns know which one. Each move they can choose one, two, or three of the remaining tomatoes from the plate and smash them into their own faces. They take turns and the clown who chooses the rotten tomato looses the game. They cannot skip the moves. Clown A starts the game. Does A or B have a winning strategy? (A winning strategy is a strategy following which you win no matter how your opponent plays.)

Becky and Rishika play the following game: There are 21 biscuits on the table. Each girl is allowed to take 1, 2 or 3 biscuits at once. The girl who cannot take any more biscuits loses. Rishika starts – show that she can always win.

Alice and Bob play a game, Alice will go first. They have a strip divided into \(2018\) identical squares. In one move, they put a \(2 \times 1\) domino block on the strip, covering two full squares. One that is not able to make their move, loses. Who has the winning strategy?

Ana and Daniel are playing a game that involves a chocolate bar. The top left square of the bar is poisoned. In each move, a player has to pick a square and take all the pieces contained in the rectangle whose top left corner is the selected square and the bottom right corner is the bottom right corner of the whole bar. The person who takes the poisoned square loses. Who will win, if Daniel starts?

Two pirates are playing a game. They have \(42\) gold coins on a table. Each of them is allowed to take either \(1\) or \(5\) coins from the table. The pirate who takes the last coin wins. Who will win – the first pirate or the second pirate?

Rekha and Misha also play with coins. They have an unlimited supply of 10p coins and a perfectly round table. In each move, one of them places a coin somewhere on that table, but not on top of any other coins already there. A person that cannot place any more coins loses. Who will win, if Rekha goes first?

Varoon and Mahmoud are given two plates of fruit. On one plate, there are \(13\) apples, on the other, there are \(16\) pears. Each of the boys can take any number of fruit from one plate when he moves. The person who takes the last fruit wins. If Mahmoud starts, who will win?

This time, Sally and Fatima have some number of books on a shelf. Every turn, each of them is allowed to take 1, 3 or 4 books from the shelf. The girl that takes the last book wins, Sally goes first. Who will win if there are: a) 14, b) 16, c) 19 books on the shelf?

Danny and Robbie draw diagonals of a regular \(2018\)-gon. They can only draw a diagonal that does not cross any other diagonal that has been already drawn, neither it begins nor ends at a same point as any other drawn diagonal. Robbie starts – can he always win?

Adam and Anthony are playing with a chessboard and a rook. The rook can only be moved either to the bottom or to the left. Each of the boys can move it as far as he wants, but only in a straight line either to the bottom or to the left. The boy who places the rook in the bottom left corner wins. Adam starts, show that he can lose to Anthony only if the rook starts somewhere on the main diagonal.