A game of 2014 cards
There is a table with a row of 2014 cards. Each card has a red side and a blue side. We’ll say that a card is red if the color on its visible face is red, and analogously for blue. Two players take turns to do the following move: select any 50 consecutive cards where the left-most card is red, then flip each of those 50 cards (thus, for those 50 cards, turning red cards into blue cards and blue cards into red cards). Both players look at the cards from the same side of the table, so “left-most” means the same to both of the players (that is, you can think of one of the ends of the table as being designated as the left end). When it is a player’s turn, if that player cannot make a move (that is, if there is no way to select 50 consecutive cards the left-most one of which is red), then that player loses and the other player wins. If you are one of the players and all cards are initially red, can you be sure to win, and if so, do you want to be the player who goes first or second?
If all the cards are initially red, the first player can always win the game.
To see why, note that the game can be divided into rounds, where each round consists of both players making a move. The first player will always start each round, and the second player will always finish each round.
In the first round, the first player can select the left-most 50 cards and flip them, which will leave the left-most 50 cards blue and the remaining 1964 cards red. In subsequent rounds, the first player can always choose the left-most 50 red cards, because there will always be at least 50 red cards to the left of any blue card. By doing this, the first player will always ensure that there are at least 50 consecutive red cards at the left end of the table, which means that the game can continue.
Eventually, the first player will flip the left-most 50 red cards and win the game, because there will be no more red cards left and the second player will not be able to make a move.
Therefore, the first player can always win the game if all the cards are initially red, and it is preferable to be the first player to make the first move.
Your Answer
More puzzles to try-
What is the logic behind these ?
3 + 3 = 3 5 + 4 = 4 1 + 0 = 3 2 + 3 = 4 ...Read More »Defective stack of coins puzzle
There are 10 stacks of 10 coins each. Each coin weights 10 gms. However, one stack of coins is defective ...Read More »Which clock works best?
Which clock works best? The one that loses a minute a day or the one that doesn’t work at all?Read More »(Advanced) Cheryl’s Birthday Puzzle
Paul, Sam and Dean are assigned the task of figuring out two numbers. They get the following information: Both numbers ...Read More »Five greedy pirates and gold coin distribution Puzzle
Five puzzleFry ship’s pirates have obtained 100 gold coins and have to divide up the loot. The pirates are all ...Read More »Magical flowers!!
A devotee goes to three temples, temple1, temple2 and temple3 one after the other. In front of each temple, there ...Read More »Tuesday, Thursday what are other two days staring with T?
Four days are there which start with the letter ‘T‘. I can remember only two of them as “Tuesday , Thursday”. ...Read More »How could only 3 apples left
Two fathers took their sons to a fruit stall. Each man and son bought an apple, But when they returned ...Read More »How Many Eggs ?
A farmer is taking her eggs to the market in a cart, but she hits a pothole, which knocks over ...Read More »HARD MATHS – How much faster is one train from other Puzzle
Two trains starting at same time, one from Bangalore to Mysore and other in opposite direction arrive at their destination ...Read More »Most Analytical GOOGLE INTERVIEW Question Revealed
Let it be simple and as direct as possible. Interviewer : Tell me how much time (in days) and money would ...Read More »Lateral thinking sequence Puzzle
Solve this logic sequence puzzle by the correct digit- 8080 = 6 1357 = 0 2022 = 1 1999 = ...Read More »How did he know?
A man leaves his house in the morning to go to office and kisses his wife. In the evening on ...Read More »Pizza Cost Math Brain Teaser
Jasmine, Thibault, and Noah were having a night out and decided to order a pizza for $10. It turned out ...Read More »Which letter replaces the question mark
Which letter replaces the question markRead More »Which room is safest puzzle
A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, ...Read More »Richie’s Number System
Richie established a very strange number system. According to her claim for different combination of 0 and 2 you will ...Read More »Srabon wanted to pass
The result of math class test came out. Fariha’s mark was an even number. Srabon got a prime!! Nabila got ...Read More »Become Normal!!
Robi is a very serious student. On the first day of this year his seriousness for study was 1 hour. ...Read More »Sakib Knows The Number!
Ragib: I got digits of a 2 digit number Sakib: Is it an odd? Ragib: Yes. Moreover, the sum of ...Read More »