A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 10 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 20 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

A Japanese ship was en route to a mission on foreign seas. The captain of the ship felt tired and thought of taking a bath. He went for taking the shower and removed his diamond ring and Rolex and kept them on the table. When he returned after taking the bath, he found that the ring and watch were stolen.

He called the five members of the crew whom he suspected and asked them what they were doing for the last 15 minutes.

The Italian cook (with a butcher knife in hand): I was in the fridge room getting meat for cooking.

The British Engineer (with a high beam torch in hand): I was working on a generator engine.

The Pakistani seaman: I was on the mast correcting the flag which was upside down by mistake.

The Indian Radio officer: I was trying to make a contact with the company to inform them about our position.

The American navigation officer: I am on night watch, so I was sleeping in my cabin.

Upon listening to them, the captain caught the lying member. Who do you think stole the valuables?

The day after tomorrow will be three days before Tuesday. Can you find out what is today?

For an extra income, John decided to work at a Hotel for one hour daily. The manager offers him that they will pay him $11 after every 11 days.
However, John offered a different proposition to the manager. The offers stand as:
He will be paid just a penny on his first day.
Two pence will be paid on the second day,
Four pence will be paid on the third day.
And so on till the 11th day.

Should the Hotel manager accept his offer?

John said, "If yesterday was tomorrow, today would be Friday."

When did John make this statement?

Aaron, Brad, Christopher, Danny and Elvis decided to play a game of tiddlywinks. In this game they decided that one win will get 1 point for winning, 0 for losing and 1/2 in case of a tie.

They finished the game in alphabetical order and it was found that the scores were different for each person.

Based on the following two statements, can you find out the result of the individual games?
Brad: No one could finish like me, without a loss.
Elvis: No one played worse than me, I finished without a single win.

On my way to St. Ives I saw a man with 7 wives. Each wife had 7 sacks. Each sack had 7 cats. Each cat had 7 kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks, wives. How many were going to St. Ives?

The teacher told the student that if he told a lie then he will be expelled from school and if he told the truth then he still is expelled from school.

What can a student say to prevent his being expelled from school?

I am thinking of a five-digit number such that:
The first and last digits are the same, their submission is an even number and multiplication is an odd number and is equal to the fourth number. Subtract five from it and we obtain the second number. Then divide into exact halves and we get the 3rd number.

What number I am thinking of?

What number comes next in this sequence:
7 8 5 5 3 4 4 _