Players and play the following game on a band of consecutive unit cells infinite in one direction. On each move of his, marks two arbitrary cells that were not marked before. On each move of his, deletes any block of consecutive marks. The goal of is to obtain consecutive marks, the goal of is to impede him. Which one has a winning strategy?
Solution
Player has a winning strategy. On his first moves he marks arbitrary cells so that the distance of every two of them is at least . Such marks are not consecutive, so every time deletes exactly one mark on his move. Thus after combined moves of the two there are marks at distances at least . Denote the group of these marks by .
On each of his next moves marks cells to the left of two different cells from , thus forming blocks of marks with length . Since can delete at most one such block at a time, combined moves leave at least blocks of marks with length .
Similarly, starts forming pairs of blocks with length on each of his next moves. Again can delete at most one such block on each move, hence after combined moves there remain at least blocks of marks with length .
Proceeding analogously, can ensure that after some move of there will be blocks of length , then blocks of length , blocks of length , blocks of length and finally block of length . Now it is 's turn to move, and he wins by marking the two cells to the left of .