Questions tagged [game]
A puzzle that asks for determining the winner in a multi-player game.
279
questions
43
votes
7
answers
4k
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The subtraction game
Alice and Bob play a game that starts by Bob picking a secret integer $N\ge100$.
Then the game goes through several rounds.
In every round, Alice picks an integer $x\ge3$.
Every number can be picked ...
- 171
2
votes
0
answers
90
views
Fifteen boxes and two prizes [duplicate]
Andrew and Barbara are playing a game. Fifteen boxes are arranged in a 3-by-5 grid, labeled with the letters A through O, as shown below.
The organizers of the game have chosen two boxes randomly and ...
- 601
14
votes
3
answers
1k
views
The Puzzle Noob’s New Game
This is a generalized version of a TED-ED puzzle.
You just wrote a very good puzzle on PSE, getting three upvotes a week. However, the puzzle noob hates your puzzles, and sends you to their dimension ...
- 16.8k
13
votes
4
answers
3k
views
The knight's game
Alice and Bob play the following game on a standard 8 by 8 chessboard.
In the very beginning, Alice picks a square on the chessboard and places a knight on this square.
Then Bob and Alice alternate ...
- 10.3k
19
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Catching a Cat on an infinite Line
Upon entering a (very) large room, you are faced with an infinite line of cardboard boxes that are labeled, in order, by the nonnegative integers. In one of these boxes, a cat is hiding, but you do ...
- 1,246
7
votes
1
answer
870
views
More Catching of Cats
After my first puzzle on this theme was solved relatively quickly, here is a (trickier) follow up question in the same vein!
The setup is similar - you are in a room with an infinite line of boxes, ...
- 2,545
10
votes
2
answers
392
views
The game of 42: 10 cards to make 42
This is a game inspired by other recent questions.
It is a 2-player game.
The game is played with 10 cards numbered 1 to 10 and 2 positions or stacks.
The game starts with all cards in stack 1.
The ...
- 1,202
20
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Winning chance in coins game with fixing
A player plays the following solitaire game. The game consists of as many rounds as are needed to produce a result. They have 20 fair coins, which may in any round be live or fixed; each coin starts ...
- 8,692
7
votes
2
answers
524
views
One vs many. Can white force a draw?
On an infinite chessboard there's a single white king and N black kings. The nearest black king must be K moves away from the white king. Given N, white dictates the value of (finite) K, then black ...
- 9,421
17
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Making a 2n-digit number divisible by 9
Alice and Bob play the following game, taking turns. Alice starts and writes a digit from the set M={1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} at the blackboard.
Bob appends another digit from the set M until a 2n-digit ...
- 8,590
9
votes
3
answers
464
views
The Kyiv Triangle Game
There are a number of triangles of various sizes in the figure below whose three vertices are among the vertices and edges on display. Two players, Alice and Bob, take turns coloring with their own ...
- 236
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
The game with cookies on a red and a blue plate
Aabzaari and Basharat play a game, alternating turns with Aabzaari going first.
At the start of the game, there are 20 cookies on a red plate and 14 cookies on a blue plate. A legal move consists in ...
- 3,308
9
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Two-Move Chess Game
Consider a standard game of chess. We make the following modification: on a turn,
if a player makes a move which neither captures a piece nor puts their opponent’s
king in check, then they may make a ...
- 2,162
2
votes
1
answer
194
views
Pursuit-evasion game [closed]
A criminal has been spotted along a straight single-filed road of length $L$ at position $P$, measured from the left endpoint of the road! Two police officers arrive to the road at positions $A$ and $...
- 39
2
votes
2
answers
373
views
Press The Grue Button
[This puzzle is inspired by the webpage https://apparenthorizons.com/2017/10/12/the-grue-problem-and-deep-learning/]
55 workers have got a chance to double their pay, as said by their boss. So, the ...
- 4,995
1
vote
5
answers
591
views
A question from Bob to Bob
Set-up:
John and Bob are playing a game that goes like this:
Bob is alone in a completely opaque, featureless room.
Bob chooses a question, though some types of questions are off-limits, which will ...
- 31k
0
votes
2
answers
405
views
Pokemon battle puzzle: Chansey vs Wobbuffet
This is a 1v1 battle between two pokemons: Chansey vs Wobbuffet.
Your task is to analyze the battle and predict its outcome.
Information about the battle:
The battle takes place in Generation III.
...
- 815
4
votes
1
answer
739
views
Don't let 'em die!
There is an 8x8 array of sleeping humans with ten feet between adjacent humans, with sides in the four cardinal directions. A hero and a villain start ten feet west of the northwest human. The hero ...
- 1,263
7
votes
1
answer
225
views
Prime Boggle Game
Two players, Alice and Bob, take turns in identifying and circling prime numbers in this 8 x 8 board of digits. Primes must be read as continuous string of digits, either horizontally (from left to ...
19
votes
1
answer
607
views
Game of the glasses on the windowsill
The windowsill above the sink is where my wife and I place our dirty wine glasses. And while both of us love each other, neither of us love loading the dishwasher. As a result, these dirty glasses ...
- 1,187
6
votes
2
answers
341
views
The Faerie Army is coming!
Well, we're all in trouble, yet again. The fabled Faerie Army has come to take over our dimension.
This is the battlefield:
However, their soldiers don't work quite like ours...
Their pawns move as ...
- 12k
16
votes
4
answers
6k
views
The Mexican Standoff
There are three cowboys in a Mexican standoff against each other, named Juan, José, and Jorge.
Juan is the straightest shooter in the West, and can hit his target 100% of the time.
José, who has a ...
24
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Monte Carlo Chess
This is an entry to the 17th fortnightly topic challenge.
Chess is an interesting game, but is so unrealistic. In real life, you couldn't tell order your knight to attack an enemy bishop and expect ...
- 1,187
1
vote
1
answer
115
views
Zigzag nim game [duplicate]
I'm trying to figure out a strategy for the following nim:
here the rules are that you choose a new position on the path $1$,$2$, or $3$ nodes forward. The other player does the same. Neither player ...
- 78.6k
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Making a 10 digit number divisible by 3
Alice and Bob play the following game, taking turns. Alice starts and writes a single digit from 0 to 9 at the blackboard.
At every turn, each player adds a single digit at the right of the current ...
- 4,491
11
votes
2
answers
485
views
Bigger number (sometimes) wins
Two players play the following game:
Each player writes down a whole number between 0 and 100 on a slip of paper, then the players simultaneously reveal their choices. If the difference between the ...
- 815
26
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Any fans of The Big Bang Theory?
Penny, Sheldon, Howard and Leonard are chilling. Sheldon comes up with an idea to play a dartboard game. Like always, he has his own rules. He brings a weird dartboard from his room, sets the bullseye ...
- 5,350
7
votes
1
answer
811
views
Optimal Strategy: Catch Up
There are 5 Quisenaire blocks. The first has length 1, the second has length 2, and so on. Each player will be building their own line of blocks, which is initially empty. A move consists of a player ...
- 201
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
The "Slightly Spooky Sequence" Game
Two players, Alice and Beatrice, having previously agreed on a positive integer N (say 30) as a limit, take turns to write a sequence of positive integers. In the first turn Alice writes 1. Thereafter,...
- 16.8k
5
votes
3
answers
403
views
Praser 5 - Help
What is the answer to the Griffon's riddle? So tired of beating my head against this one. I've solved the Sphinx, Unicorn, and Pegasus, but this one is killing me.
...
- 10.3k
15
votes
2
answers
958
views
Can Alice form a unit square?
Alice and Bob take turns to mark points in $\mathbb{R^2}$ (i.e. infinite 2D plane). Alice can only mark $1$ point on her turn, while Bob can mark $N$. They're free to mark their points anywhere as ...
- 6,836
11
votes
2
answers
348
views
The match between the seventh and the eighth player
12 players took part in a chess tournament and any two of them played exactly one match against each other (1 point for victory, 1/2 point for draw, 0 point for loss). After the tournament the top-...
- 4,491
5
votes
1
answer
267
views
Who wins this game of graphs?
Albert and Bob are playing a game. This time it works like this: there are n points and Albert can ask whether or not $2$ points are connected. Bob then decides whether or not the points are connected....
- 7,820
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Who wins this game?
A 2-player game depends on two positive integers n and k known in advance to both participants. Albert has a secret number from 1 to n. Bob asks Albert a sequence of "yes" or "no" ...
- 78.6k
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Pigpen Tic-Tac-Toe
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #3: Pencil and Paper Games
Introducing a new tic-tac-toe variant of my own devising (at least I haven't found an equivalent anywhere online).
...
- 16.9k
24
votes
4
answers
10k
views
Can you Turn MI to MU?
Using the letters M, I, and U, which can be used to create words. Can you turn MI into MU using in each step one of the following rules:
Insert a U to the end of a word ending in I. e.g: MI becomes ...
13
votes
2
answers
829
views
Decision Paralysis
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #1: Restricted Title: xkcd 1xxx and is based on https://xkcd.com/1801/.
Protip: If you ever need to defeat me, just give me two very similar options ...
- 31k
1
vote
1
answer
125
views
The best way to place circles into a square [duplicate]
Given a square of side length as least 2, there are two players who must in turn place a unit radius circle into the square without overlapping any previously placed circle.
The loser is the first ...
- 7,405
16
votes
4
answers
3k
views
The Game of Barranca
Barranca is played with sixteen cards, numbered 1, 2, ... , 16. Two players alternately choose a card, until each has eight. The winner is the one who has a (sub)set of numbers whose product is 220, ...
- 6,591
21
votes
9
answers
3k
views
Catch the invisible and omniscient thief
The thief has stolen two powerful artifacts: the Cloak of Invisibility and the Glasses of the Oracle. Now they're equipped with both. The cop at the bottom, not knowing where the thief is, is trying ...
- 150k
16
votes
9
answers
3k
views
A search game with 2016 numbers
Alice secretly chooses $2016$ integers $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_{2016}$.
Among these $2016$ integers, there are $2015$ that all have the same value, and there is only one number $x_k$ that takes a different ...
- 6,314
14
votes
2
answers
3k
views
A two player game: Player who gets to 1000 or more first, wins
This is from the current weekly math challenge from the newspaper Le Monde.
Alice and Bob play the following game, in turn:
A number between $1$ and $10$ is written on a blackboard.
At each of their ...
- 4,491
2
votes
1
answer
290
views
No-Luck Riomino
Kris Burm's Riomino (or Tashkent Domino) is played with 25 identical dice that look like this:
The actual rules are as follows.
Each player rolls 12 dice that then serve as their "dominos" ...
- 12k
6
votes
2
answers
391
views
Board game: Risk (two players)
Consider a game of two players: Player A and Player B. Each of them is assigned with the same number of soldiers. There is a battlefield (like a board game) with 7 tiles numbered 1 through 7 (a single ...
- 2,162
9
votes
1
answer
316
views
Be Paired or Be Square
8 white and 8 black dots are drawn on a piece of paper. Parcly and Tori take turns drawing edges, always between white and black dots not already adjacent (so the graph is always bipartite); the first ...
- 5,160
3
votes
1
answer
266
views
Harary's generalized Tic-Tac-Toe; Winning strategy for Skinny on a 7 x 7 board?
Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is a ask question, not to offer a puzzle. Still, there are some puzzles here for the reader's pleasure.
Disclaimer 2: This question was also asked on Math Stack ...
- 32.6k
9
votes
2
answers
541
views
Form an equilateral triangle
Alice and Bob take turns to mark points in $\mathbb{R^2}$ (i.e. infinite 2D plane). Alice can only mark $1$ point on her turn, while Bob can mark $4$ points. They're free to mark their points anywhere ...
- 21.4k
19
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Blindfold Tic-Tac-Toe
You are playing the classic game of 3x3 Tic-Tac-Toe. You are blindfolded and you cannot see the grid, while your opponent can see it. When making a move you call out a cell. If that cell is taken you ...
- 4,491
10
votes
2
answers
673
views
Buzzword Bingo Boss Battle!
Two bosses of different companies take turns delivering long speeches. Every speech much “claim” at least one unused square by uttering the corresponding buzzword(s) in the table below. Victory is ...
- 4,491
9
votes
1
answer
929
views
Removing coins from a pile depending on the previous move
Alice and Bob play a game taking turns. There is one pile of $n\geq2$ identical coins on a table.
Alice starts and with her first move she takes away at least one coin from the pile, but not all of ...
- 1,032