>>>I said excplicitly, that the last one can see hats of all, who stand before him, e.g. 99 sages himself excluding. The 99th can see all before him, e.g. 98, himself excluded, etc.
>>>
>>>As I said, the solution is very simple, but you should try to imagine yourself one of these sages... Hopefully, not the last one :)
>>
>>One last try...
>>
>>The last sage takes a wild guess (50/50 chance). Then touches the next sage on the right shoulder if his hat is white and left shoulder if black and so on.
>>
>>Therefore he's not saying anything except his own hat color's guess but still lets the next sage know what color he's wearing.
>>
>>That's it Nadya. I'm not trying anymore!!!! ;-)
>>
>>Alex
>
>It's still against the rules... :) No touching, no nothing :) Let's assume, that they stay far enough one from other, so they could not touch.

Nadya,

What if the first guy simply said the color of hat of the second guy. The second guy would say that color because it is his color. If he paused before he said it, then #3 would know that his hat was a different color, if #2 said it right away then #3 would know his was the same color. The first guy has a 50/50 chance of being right. So, the only guy that might die is the first. All the rest survive.

Would that work?

Renoir