Problem

Source: Ukraine TST 2014 p6

Tags: combinatorics, Coloring



Let $n \ge 3$ be an odd integer. Each cell is a $n \times n$ board painted in yellow or blue. Let's call the sequence of cells $S_1, S_2,...,S_m$ path if they are all the same color and the cells $S_i$ and $S_j$ have one in common an edge if and only if $|i - j| = 1$. Suppose that all yellow cells form a path and all the blue cells form a path. Prove that one of the two paths begins or ends at the center of the board.