Problems

There are three piles of rocks: in the first pile there are 10 rocks, 15 in the second pile and 20 in the third pile. In this game (with two players), in one turn a player is allowed to divide one of the piles into two smaller piles. The loser is the one who cannot make a move. Which player would be the winner?

A traveller rents a room in an inn for a week and offers the innkeeper a chain of seven silver links as payment – one link per day, with the condition that they will be payed everyday. The innkeeper agrees, with the condition that the traveller can only cut one of the links. How did the traveller manage to pay the innkeeper?

There are 6 locked suitcases and 6 keys for them. It is not known which keys are for which suitcase. What is the smallest number of attempts do you need in order to open all the suitcases? How many attempts would you need if there are 10 suitcases and keys instead of 6?

In a vase, there is a bouquet of 7 white and blue lilac branches. It is known that 1) at least one branch is white, 2) out of any two branches, at least one is blue. How many white branches and how many blue are there in the bouquet?

Louise has an \(8\times 8\) chessboard with two opposite corners removes, just like in the picture below. She also has 31 \(2\times1\) dominoes. Can she tile this board with the dominoes she has?

There is a \(3 \times 3\) grid filled with zeros. Louise is allowed to add 1 to each small square inside any \(2\times2\) grid. Can she ever get the following table as a result of her actions?

A rectangular floor is to be covered by \(2 \times 2\) and \(1\times4\) tiles (everything is arranged). Unfortunately one tile got smashed, but we have one more tile of the other kind available. Can we retile the floor perfectly?

This academic year Harry decided not only to attend Maths Circles, but also to join his local Chess Club. Harry’s chess set was very old and some pieces were missing so he ordered a new one. When it arrived, he found out to his surprise that the set consisted of 32 knights of different colours. He was a bit upset but he decided to spend some time on solving the problem he heard on the last Saturday’s Maths Circle session. The task was to find out if it is possible to put more than 30 knights on a chessboard in such a way that they do not attack each other. Do you think it is possible or not?

After listening to Harry’s complaints the delivery service promised him to deliver a very expensive chess set together with some books on chess strategies and puzzles. This week one of the tasks was to put 14 bishops on a chessboard so that they do not attack each other. Harry solved this problem and smiled hoping he is not getting 32 identical bishops this time. Can you solve it?

A boy is playing on a \(4\times10\) board. He is trying to put 8 bishops on the board so that each cell is attacked by one of the bishops. Finally he manages to solve this problem.

(a) Can you show a possible solution?

(b) Can you do the same thing with 7 bishops?