Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 9.1 IMO level Prove it Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Anna and Bob play a game on the set of all points of the form (m,n)(m, n) where m,nm, n are integers with m,n2019|m|, |n| \leq 2019. Let us call the lines x=±2019x = \pm 2019 and y=±2019y = \pm 2019 the boundary lines of the game. The points of these lines are called the boundary points. The neighbours of point (m,n)(m, n) are the points (m+1,n)(m+1, n), (m1,n)(m-1, n), (m,n+1)(m, n+1), (m,n1)(m, n-1).

Anna starts with a token at the origin (0,0)(0, 0). With Bob playing first, they alternately perform the following steps: At his turn, Bob deletes two points on each boundary line. On her turn Anna makes a sequence of three moves of the token, where a move of the token consists of picking up the token from its current position and placing it in one of its neighbours.

To win the game Anna must place her token on a boundary point before it is deleted by Bob. Does Anna have a winning strategy?

[Note: At every turn except perhaps her last, Anna must make exactly three moves.]

Solution

Anna does not have a winning strategy. We will provide a winning strategy for Bob. It is enough to describe his strategy for the deletions on the line y=2019y = 2019.

Bob starts by deleting (0,2019)(0, 2019) and (1,2019)(-1, 2019). Once Anna completes her step, he deletes the next two available points on the left if Anna decreased her xx-coordinate, the next two available points on the right if Anna increased her xx-coordinate, and the next available point to the left and the next available point to the right if Anna did not change her xx-coordinate. The only exception to the above rule is on the very first time Anna decreases xx by exactly 1. In that step, Bob deletes the next available point to the left and the next available point to the right.

Bob's strategy guarantees the following: If Anna makes a sequence of steps reaching (x,y)(-x, y) with x>0x > 0 and the exact opposite sequence of moves in the horizontal direction reaching (x,y)(x, y) then Bob deletes at least as many points to the left of (0,2019)(0, 2019) in the first sequence than points to the right of (0,2019)(0, 2019) in the second sequence.

So we may assume for contradiction that Anna wins by placing her token at (k,2019)(k, 2019) for some k>0k > 0.

Define Δ=3m(2x+y)\Delta = 3m - (2x + y) where mm is the total number of points deleted by Bob to the right of (0,2019)(0, 2019), and (x,y)(x, y) is the position of Anna's token.

For each sequence of steps performed first by Anna and then by Bob, Δ\Delta does not decrease. This can be seen by looking at the following table exhibiting the changes in 3m3m and 2x+y2x + y. We have excluded the cases where 2x+y<02x + y < 0.

Step(0,3)(1,2)(-1,2)(2,1)(0,1)(3,0)(1,0)(2,-1)(1,-2)
mm120 (or 1)212222
3m3m360 (or 3)636666
2x+y2x + y340516230

The table also shows that if in this sequence of steps Anna changes yy by +1+1 or 2-2 then Δ\Delta is increased by 1. Also, if Anna changes yy by +2+2 or 1-1 then the first time this happens Δ\Delta is increased by 2. (This also holds if her move is (0,1)(0, -1) or (2,1)(-2, -1) which are not shown in the table.)

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Since Anna wins by placing her token at (k,2019)(k, 2019) we must have mk1m \leq k - 1 and k2018k \leq 2018. So at that exact moment we have:
Δ=3m(2k+2019)=k20224. \Delta = 3m - (2k + 2019) = k - 2022 \leq -4.
So in her last turn she must have decreased Δ\Delta by at least 4. So her last step must have been (1,2)(1, 2) or (2,1)(2, 1) which give a decrease of 4 and 5 respectively. (It could not be (3,0)(3, 0) because then she must have already won. Also she could not have done just one or two moves in her last turn since this is not enough for the required decrease in Δ\Delta.)

If her last step was (1,2)(1, 2) then just before doing it we had y=2017y = 2017 and Δ=0\Delta = 0. This means that in one of her steps the total change in yy was not 0mod30 \mod 3. However in that case we have seen that Δ>0\Delta > 0, a contradiction.

If her last step was (2,1)(2, 1) then just before doing it we had y=2018y = 2018 and Δ=0\Delta = 0 or Δ=1\Delta = 1. So she must have made at least two steps with the change of yy being +1+1 or 2-2 or at least one step with the change of yy being +2+2 or 1-1. In both cases, consulting the table, we get an increase of at least 2 in Δ\Delta, a contradiction.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.