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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.6 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Spain

Consider a 25×2525 \times 25 chessboard with cells C(i,j)C(i, j) for 1i,j251 \le i, j \le 25. Find the smallest possible number nn of colors with which these cells can be colored subject to the following condition: For 1i<j251 \le i < j \le 25 and for 1s<t251 \le s < t \le 25, the three cells C(i,s)C(i, s), C(j,s)C(j, s), C(j,t)C(j, t) carry at least two different colors.

Solution

The forbidden configuration is given by
Figure 1

For a 3×33 \times 3 chessboard, the minimum number is given by 2. Indeed:
Figure 2

If we deal with a 5×55 \times 5 chessboard, it is sufficient to consider 3 colours:
Figure 3

It seems that mn=n12m_n = \frac{n-1}{2} colours is sufficient for an n×nn \times n chessboard for any odd nn. So we will prove that 13 colours are sufficient for the 25×2525 \times 25 chessboard. We consider the colours {1,2,3,,11,12,0}\{1, 2, 3, \dots, 11, 12, 0\} and the chessboard coloured as:

Figure 4

which satisfies the condition at first sight. In fact, it is easy that C[i,j]=i+j2(mod13)C[i, j] = \lfloor \frac{i+j}{2} \rfloor \pmod{13} for any 1i,j251 \le i, j \le 25. So if the condition fails, then C[i,s]=C[j,s]=C[j,t]C[i, s] = C[j, s] = C[j, t] for some 1i<j251 \le i < j \le 25 and 1s<t251 \le s < t \le 25, which implies that
i+s2(mod13)=j+s2(mod13)=j+t2(mod13). \left\lfloor \frac{i+s}{2} \right\rfloor \pmod{13} = \left\lfloor \frac{j+s}{2} \right\rfloor \pmod{13} = \left\lfloor \frac{j+t}{2} \right\rfloor \pmod{13}.
From C[i,s]=C[j,s]C[i, s] = C[j, s] it is clear that j+s2=i+s2\left\lfloor \frac{j+s}{2} \right\rfloor = \left\lfloor \frac{i+s}{2} \right\rfloor since 0j+s2i+s2<j+s2(i+s21)=ji2+1242+1=130 \le \left\lfloor \frac{j+s}{2} \right\rfloor - \left\lfloor \frac{i+s}{2} \right\rfloor < \frac{j+s}{2} - \left(\frac{i+s}{2} - 1\right) = \frac{j-i}{2} + 1 \le \frac{24}{2} + 1 = 13, so i+s2j+s212\left\lfloor \frac{i+s}{2} \right\rfloor - \left\lfloor \frac{j+s}{2} \right\rfloor \le 12 and the remainders must coincide. Analogously, from C[j,s]=C[j,t]C[j, s] = C[j, t] we have that [j+s2]=[j+t2][\frac{j+s}{2}] = [\frac{j+t}{2}], so we conclude that [i+s2]=[i+t2][\frac{i+s}{2}] = [\frac{i+t}{2}], which is impossible since
[i+s2]i+s2j+t21<[j+t2]. \left[ \frac{i+s}{2} \right] \le \frac{i+s}{2} \le \frac{j+t}{2} - 1 < \left[ \frac{j+t}{2} \right].

Now we prove that 13 colours are necessary. Fix a 25×2525 \times 25 chessboard with a configuration satisfying the condition. We fix any colour, for instance colour number 2. We will call 2-cells that ones which are coloured with colour number 2. The total number of 2-cells will be denoted by c2c_2. We delete all the colours and only remain 2-cells. From any 2-cell, we draw horizontal arrows from left to right and vertical arrows from down to up joining consecutive 2-cells. These arrows will be called 2-arrows.
Figure 5

Any 2-cell cannot have two or more out-going 2-arrows since otherwise the forbidden configuration would occur:
Figure 6

Therefore, the total number of 2-arrows a2a_2 satisfies c2a2c_2 \ge a_2. It is clear that in any row, if there are kk 2-cells, then there are k1k-1 2-arrows in that row, so the total number of horizontal 2-arrows equals to c225c_2 - 25 because there are 25 rows. Analogously, looking at the columns, the total number of vertical 2-arrows also equals to c225c_2 - 25. So the total number of 2-arrows is a2=2(c225)a_2 = 2(c_2 - 25) and we obtain c2a22c250c_2 \ge a_2 \ge 2c_2 - 50, so c250c_2 \le 50. Since there are 25×25=62525 \times 25 = 625 cells and 625/50>12625/50 > 12, we need at least 13 colours to get the configuration.

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