USAJMO 2019 Problem 1

There are $a+b$ bowls arranged in a row, numbered $1$ through $a+b$ , where $a$ and $b$ are given positive integers. Initially, each of the first $a$ bowls contains an apple, and each of the last $b$ bowls contains a pear. A legal move consists of moving an apple from bowl $i$ to bowl $i+1$ and a pear from bowl $j$ to bowl $j-1$ , provided that the difference $i-j$ is even. We permit multiple fruits in the same bowl at the same time. The goal is to end up with the first $b$ bowls each containing a pear and the last $a$ bowls each containing an apple. Show that this is possible if and only if the product $ab$ is even.