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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it Croatia

Rudi and Miljen take turns playing a game on a board. One move consists of selecting two relatively prime positive integers that are already written on the board, erasing them and replacing them with their sum. The player who cannot make a move loses. Rudi plays first. Prove that Miljen has a winning strategy if the initial numbers on the board are

a) 2019 ones

b) 2020 ones.

Solution

a)
We claim that Miljen can play so that he leaves some odd number nn and 2019n2019 - n ones on the board after each of his moves, i.e. before Rudi's move. In that case, after 10091009 of Miljen's moves only the number 20192019 is written on the board, so Rudi cannot make a move and Miljen wins.

In the beginning, the board can be described as above, with n=1n = 1. Rudi can erase two ones and write number 22 on the board. In that case, Miljen can erase nn and 22, which he can do since nn is odd, and write n+2n + 2 on the board, which leaves the board as described above.

In each subsequent turn, Rudi and Miljen can play as above and our claim holds. Alternatively, Rudi can erase nn and one of the ones, and write n+1n + 1. Note that 2019n2019 - n is even, so Rudi's move leaves an odd number of ones on the board. Miljen can now select n+1n + 1 and a one, and write n+2n + 2, which again only leaves some odd number and ones on the board, as before.

b)
In this case, Miljen uses the same strategy as in a), except when making the final move. Namely, after each of Miljen's moves an odd number nn and 2020n2020 - n ones are written on the board. Note that now 2020n2020 - n is odd. It remains to describe Miljen's last, i.e. his 10091009th move.

If after Rudi's 10091009th move the numbers on the board are 20182018, 11 and 11, Miljen can erase the two ones, and replace them with 22. Rudi cannot make a move after that, since 20182018 and 22 are not relatively prime, and Miljen wins.

If after Rudi's 10091009th move the numbers on the board are 20172017, 22 and 11, Miljen can erase 20172017 and 11, and replace them with 20182018, which again leaves Rudi with 20182018 and 22, and Miljen wins.

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