A magician and his assistant are performing the following trick. There is a row of $13$ empty closed boxes. The magician leaves the room, and a person from the audience hides a coin in each of two boxes of his choice, so that the assistant knows which boxes contain coins. The magician returns and the assistant is allowed to open one box that does not contain a coin. Next, the magician selects four boxes, which are then simultaneously opened. The goal of the magician is to open both boxes that contain coins. Devise a method that will allow the magician and his assistant to always successfully perform the trick. (Igor Zhizhilkin) junior version posted here
Problem
Source: Tournament of Towns, Senior O-Level , Spring 2019 p4
Tags: combinatorics, game, game strategy