Instructions

The following questions relate to a game to be played by you and your friend. The game consists of a 4 x 4 board (see below) where each cell contains a positive integer. You and your friend make moves alternately. A move by any of the players consists of splitting the current board configuration into two equal halves and retaining one of them. In your moves you are allowed to split the board only vertically and to decide to retain either the left or the right half. Your friend, in his/her moves, can split the board only horizontally and can retain either the lower or the upper half. After two moves by each player a single cell will remain which can no longer be split and the number in that cell will be treated as the gain (in rupees) of the person who has started the game. A sample game is shown below. So your gain is Re.1. With the same initial board configuration as above and assuming that you have to make the first move, answer the following questions.
  Initial Board                          

 

After your move (retain left)

 


After your friends move (retain upper)


After your move (retain right)


After your friends move (retain lower)


    

Question 32

If you choose (retain right) (retain left) in your turns, the best move sequence for your friend to reduce your gain to a minimum will be

Solution

After my first move of retaining right board will be like

Now second person will force me to retain with the lowest value possible i.e. 2 or 3
So if he retains lower half and i retain with left one (as mentioned) then he can only force me to pick 3.
Or if he retains upper half and i retain with left one(as mentioned) then he can retain upper half so i will be having minimized profit of 2.
Hence second person will have moves as "Retain (upper half) and retain (upper half)"

Video Solution

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