Problem

Source: Tournament of Towns 2007 - Spring - Junior A-Level - P7

Tags: combinatorics unsolved, combinatorics



Nancy shuffles a deck of $52$ cards and spreads the cards out in a circle face up, leaving one spot empty. Andy, who is in another room and does not see the cards, names a card. If this card is adjacent to the empty spot, Nancy moves the card to the empty spot, without telling Andy; otherwise nothing happens. Then Andy names another card and so on, as many times as he likes, until he says "stop." (a) Can Andy guarantee that after he says "stop," no card is in its initial spot? (b) Can Andy guarantee that after he says "stop," the Queen of Spades is not adjacent to the empty spot?