W05: Combinatorial Games

Zlatko Salko Lagumdzija

April 2024

1 Introduction
Be sure to attempt all the problems by the end of Friday. Spend at least 10
minutes per problem because you may be called out to talk about the ideas you
came up with or tried for any problem. If you solve a problem, think about
and write down what hints you would give other scholars who are stuck on the
problem and would like a bit of a push.
Send 3 documents: The LaTeX .tex file of your solution, the pdf of your
LaTeX solution, and a .txt file with the difficulty scores on a scale from 1-10 for
each of the problems. Write down the hints in the LaTeX file.

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Combinatorial Games
1. Shef and Machine play a game with pebbles located in two piles on a table,
one containing x pebbles and the other containing y pebbles. Each player
chooses a pile and takes any number of pebbles from it. The player who
takes the last pebble from the table wins. Shef plays first. Determine who
has a winning strategy if:
a) x = 50, y = 50;
b) x = 50, y = 100.
2. Given a regular polygon with 2020 sides. Shef and Machine play a game
where Shef plays first. In each move, they draw a diagonal of the polygon
that does not intersect any previously drawn diagonal inside the polygon
(diagonals may originate from the same vertex, but this is not considered
an ”inside” intersection). The player who cannot make a move loses. Who
has a winning strategy?
3. On the board, the numbers 123 ... 9123 ... 912 ... .8912 are written, with
a total of 2018 digits. Shef and Machine play a game, with Shef playing
first. In each turn, one of them removes either the first two digits, the last
two digits, or the first and last digit. The game ends when a two-digit
number remains on the board. Machine wins if this number is divisible by
3, otherwise, Shef wins. Who has a winning strategy? Who has a winning
strategy if there are 2022 digits written on the board (the last digit then
being 6)?
4. On a circle, n points are given, initially with no two connected. Shef and
Machine play a game, with Shef playing first. In each move, they connect
two points that are not already directly connected. Determine for which
n the first player has a winning strategy and for which the second, if:

a) The player loses after whose move every point is connected to at least
one other point;
b) The player wins after whose move every point is connected to at least
one other point.

5. 10 cards are placed on the table, with each bearing one of the digits 0,1,2,
. . . ,9. Shef and Machine play a game, with Shef playing first. They take
cards alternately, with the cards turned so they can see the numbers on
them, until each has taken 5 cards. They arrange these cards from left to
right to form a five-digit number (in the first move they must not take a
zero).

a) If the player whose number is divisible by 9 wins, who has a winning

strategy? If both numbers are divisible by 9, or both are not, the
game ends in a draw.

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 b) If Shef wins if her number is divisible by 6, and otherwise Machine
wins, who has a winning strategy?
6. Around a circular table sit 2021 individuals, including Shef and Machine.
They play a game where Shef moves first. Each player, in turn, chooses
one of their two neighbors (left or right) and removes them from the table.
The winner is the player who succeeds in removing the other player from
the table. Determine who has a winning strategy, Shef or Machine.
Note: It is possible that the same player always has a winning strategy,
regardless of the initial positions of Shef and Machine, or that for some
initial positions Shef has a winning strategy and for others, Machine does.
7. You are given three piles with a, b, and c coins. Shef and Machine play a
game, with Shef starting first. In each turn, a player selects two piles, and
from the one with fewer or equal coins transfers any number of coins to
the other pile. The player who cannot make a move loses (i.e., the game
ends when only one pile remains). Determine who has a winning strategy,
if:
a) a = 100, b = 50, c = 1;
b) a = 100, b = 50, c = 10.
8. The number 1000 is written on the board. Shef and Machine play a game,
with Shef playing first and moves are made alternately. In each move,
they erase the current number and write a smaller natural number that
does not divide it (i.e., if the current number is x, they erase x and write
a natural number t < x such that t does not divide x). The player who
cannot make a move loses. Who has a winning strategy?

9. Given a board of size 19 × 94. The first player selects a k × k square

and colors the squares within it. The second player then selects a j × j
square such that none of its squares are already colored and colors them.
Players continue the game until no more moves are possible. The player
who colors the last square wins. Which player has a winning strategy?

10. Two players play the following game: the first player on their turns writes
one of the symbols A or B (exactly one each turn, from left to right),
while the second player after each turn of the first may either skip their
turn or swap the positions of any two already written symbols. After each
has played 2021 turns (counting as a turn even when the second player
skips a turn), the game ends. The second player wins if the resulting word
(composed of 2021 letters) is a palindrome; otherwise, the first player wins.
Which player has a winning strategy? (A palindrome is a word that reads
the same from left to right and right to left.)
11. On a 5 × 5 board, players A and B take turns marking squares. Player A
marks squares with an ’X’, and player B marks squares with an ’O’. Each

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 square can only be marked once. Player A wins if she can fill an entire
row, column, or diagonal with only ’X’s.
12. A natural number is written on a chalkboard. Two players take turns,
with each turn consisting of replacing the number n with either n − 1 or
⌊(n + 1)/2⌋. The first player to write the number 1 wins.
Problem: If the starting number is 1,000,000, which player wins with
correct play?