A Collection of Problems Suggested for the International Mathematical Olympiads: 1959–2004
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is nearing its fiftieth anniversary and has already created a very rich legacy and firmly established itself as the most prestigious mathematical competition in which a high-school student could aspire to participate. Apart from the opportunity to tackle interesting and very challenging mathematical problems, the IMO represents a great opportunity for high-school students to see how they measure up against students from the rest of the world. Perhaps even more importantly, it is an opportunity to make friends and socialize with students who have similar interests, possibly even to become acquainted with their future colleagues on this first leg of their journey into the world of professional and scientific mathematics. Above all, however pleasing or disappointing the final score may be, preparing for an IMO and participating in one is an adventure that will undoubtedly linger in one’s memory for the rest of one’s life. It is to the high-school-aged aspiring mathematician and IMO participant that we devote this entire book.
The goal of this book is to include all problems ever shortlisted for the IMOs in a single volume. Up to this point, only scattered manuscripts traded among different teams have been available, and a number of manuscripts were lost for many years or unavailable to many.
In this book, all manuscripts have been collected into a single compendium of mathematics problems of the kind that usually appear on the IMOs. Therefore, we believe that this book will be the definitive and authoritative source for high-school students preparing for the IMO, and we suspect that it will be of particular benefit in countries lacking adequate preparation literature. A high-school student could spend an enjoyable year going through the numerous problems and novel ideas presented in the solutions and emerge ready to tackle even the most difficult problems on an IMO. In addition, the skill acquired in the process of successfully attacking difficult mathematics problems will prove to be invaluable in a serious and prosperous career in mathematics.
