Combinatorics · Game theory · Symmetry · Invariants
Two players alternately take balls from two boxes. On each turn, a player chooses one of the boxes and removes any number of balls from it (at least one). The player who takes the last ball wins. The first box contains \(19\) balls and the second contains \(96\). How should the first player play in order to win?
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Serbian Municipal Competition 1996, high school grade I, problem 5. Organized by the Mathematical Society of Serbia (DMS).