A monkey escaped from it’s cage in the zoo. Two guards are trying to catch it. The monkey and the guards run along the zoo lanes. There are six straight lanes in the zoo: three long ones form an equilateral triangle and three short ones connect the middles of the triangle sides. Every moment of the time the monkey and the guards can see each other. Will the guards be able to catch the monkey, if it runs three times faster than the guards? (In the beginning of the chase the guards are in one of the triangle vertices and the monkey is in another one.)
Prove that in a game of noughts and crosses on a \(3\times 3\) grid, if the first player uses the right strategy then the second player cannot win.
Given a board (divided into squares) of the size: a) \(10\times 12\), b) \(9\times 10\), c) \(9\times 11\), consider the game with two players where: in one turn a player is allowed to cross out any row or any column if there is at least one square not crossed out. The loser is the one who cannot make a move. Is there a winning strategy for one of the players?
A rectangular chocolate bar size \(5 \times 10\) is divided by vertical and horizontal division lines into 50 square pieces. Two players are playing the following game. The one who starts breaks the chocolate bar along some division line into two rectangular pieces and puts the resulting pieces on the table. Then players take turns doing the same operation: each time the player whose turn it is at the moment breaks one of the parts into two parts. The one who is the first to break off a square slice \(1\times 1\) (without division lines) a) loses; b) wins. Which of the players can secure a win: the one who starts or the other one?
There is a system of equations \[\begin{aligned} * x + * y + * z &= 0,\\ * x + * y + * z &= 0,\\ * x + * y + * z &= 0. \end{aligned}\] Two people alternately enter a number instead of a star. Prove that the player that goes first can always ensure that the system has a non-zero solution.
Two players play on a square field of size \(99 \times 99\), which has been split onto cells of size \(1 \times 1\). The first player places a cross on the center of the field; After this, the second player can place a zero on any of the eight cells surrounding the cross of the first player. After that, the first puts a cross onto any cell of the field next to one of those already occupied, etc. The first player wins if he can put a cross on any corner cell. Prove that with any strategy of the second player the first can always win.
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?
Two players in turn increase a natural number in such a way that at each increase the difference between the new and old values of the number is greater than zero, but less than the old value. The initial value of the number is 2. The winner is the one who can create the number 1987. Who wins with the correct strategy: the first player or his partner?
Two players in turn paint the sides of an \(n\)-gon. The first one can paint the side that borders either zero or two colored sides, the second – the side that borders one painted side. The player who can not make a move loses. At what \(n\) can the second player win, no matter how the first player plays?
The Hatter plays a computer game. There is a number on the screen, which every minute increases by 102. The initial number is 123. The Hatter can change the order of the digits of the number on the screen at any moment. His aim is to keep the number of the digits on the screen below four. Can he do it?