Putnam 2006 A2
- Session A
Alice and Bob play a game in which they take turns removing stones from a heap that initially has stones. The number of stones removed at each turn must be one less than a prime number. The winner is the player who takes the last stone. Alice plays first. Prove that there are infinitely many such that Bob has a winning strategy. (For example, if , then Alice might take 6 leaving 11; then Bob might take 1 leaving 10; then Alice can take the remaining stones to win.)
Curated text Kedlaya Putnam archive. Quoted with source.
Solutions
No solution is on olymmath yet. Official and human solutions come first when they arrive. AI solutions come after them, with a label.