Problem

Source: Serbia IMO TST 2024, P1

Tags: combinatorics



Three coins are placed at the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system. On one move one removes a coin placed at some position $(x, y)$ and places three new coins at $(x+1, y)$, $(x, y+1)$ and $(x+1, y+1)$. Prove that after finitely many moves, there will exist two coins placed at the same point.