Suppose, without loss of generality, m≤n. If m=2, Arnold has winning strategy if and only if n is not a multiple of 4; for m≥3, Arnold has winning strategy if and only if m and n are both odd.
Suppose m=2. If 4 does not divide n, Arnold can win placing the knight on the first column if n=4k+1 and on the second column if n=4k+r, r=2 or r=3. The knight should always be moved two columns ahead on each move, allowing exactly 2k moves.
Now consider n=4k. Divide the table into 2×4 subtables, and pair the cells in such a way that it's always possible to move the knight between cells from each pair:
Since the whole table is divided into pairs, Bernold can always move, no matter where Arnold places the knight: it suffices to move the knight to the other cell in the pair. When Arnold plays, he will move the knight to a cell from another pair, and Bernold can repeat this strategy. So if
n=4k Bernold has winning strategy.
This finishes the case
m=2. The case
m≥3 follows in a similar fashion, dividing the table into smaller subtables:
Those tables prove that Bernold has winning strategy for tables
3×n,
n even and Arnold has winning strategy for tables
3×n,
n odd: divide the table into one
3×3 or
3×5 subtable and several
3×4 subtables; it suffices to place the knight on the cell marked with an
A and then use the aforementioned Bernold's strategy.
The case
m=4 can be verified using several
4×2 subtables if
n is even and one
4×3 subtable and several
4×2 subtables if
n is odd. This also proves that if either Arnold or Bernold has winning strategy for a
m×n table then he also has winning strategy for a
(m+4)×n table,
m≥3. So it suffices to solve the problem for
m∈{3,4,5,6}.
The case
m=5 can be solved using the following subtables:
Notice that Bernold has winning strategy for a
5×4 table and Arnold has winning strategy for a
5×3 table. Thus, in the case
5×n,
n even, we merge
5×4 subtables if
n is a multiple of
4 and one
5×6 subtable and
5×4 subtables if
n=4k+2; if
n is odd, we merge several
5×4 subtables to a
5×3 or
5×5 subtable, if
n=4k+3 or
n=4k+1, respectively.
The case
6×n follows directly from the case
3×n if
n is even (merge two
3×n tables) and merging
6×4 subtables to a
6×3 or
6×5 subtable, if
n=4k+3 or
n=4k+1, respectively. All the cases are covered.