Hex
Link your two opposite sides of the rhombus board before your opponent links theirs. No dice, no hidden information, no draws — every game has a winner.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Why can't Hex end in a draw?
Because the two players' connections cannot cross. A black top-to-bottom chain and a white left-to-right chain would have to intersect each other, which is impossible on a flat board of hexagons. This is essentially the Jordan curve theorem in disguise, and John Nash turned it into a strict proof: when the board is full, exactly one player is connected.
Does the first player (Black) have an advantage?
Yes. Hex is a first-player win: the second player cannot have a winning strategy, and since a draw is impossible, the first player must have one. The proof is non-constructive — it shows a winning strategy exists without telling you the moves. Serious play uses the swap (pie) rule to compensate: after Black's opening stone, White may take it over and swap sides. This online version does not use the swap rule, so Black — your side in AI mode — is slightly favored.
What is a bridge, and why is it important?
A bridge is two of your stones two cells apart that share exactly two empty neighbors (they sit on opposite corners of the same 2×2 block of cells). The opponent can fill only one of those neighbors, so the pair still connects through the other: a virtual connection. Bridges let you advance without spending moves on adjacent stones, making them the basic building block of Hex strategy.
What board size should beginners use?
The standard board is 11×11 (10×10 is also common, and Nash himself preferred 14×14). Beginners usually start on 7×7 or 9×9: the games are shorter, and it is much easier to see connection shapes and edge templates before moving up.
Explore Game Details
About Hex
Hex was invented by Danish mathematician Piet Hein and published in 1942 under the name Polygon; John Nash, later a Nobel laureate in economics, reinvented it independently in 1948 and proved that a draw is impossible. Parker Brothers published the commercial version in the 1950s, which settled the name Hex. Played on a rhombus of hexagons, it founded the connection genre — strategy grows out of topology rather than capture, and the generalized n×n game has been proved PSPACE-complete.
Benefits
Playing Hex develops topological intuition, long-range planning, and pattern recognition. Every stone permanently changes the connection landscape, so you learn to reason in paths, threats, and blocks rather than material — foresight training with no luck involved.
How to Play
- Hex is played on an 11×11 rhombus (a parallelogram) of hexagons. Each player owns two opposite edges: Black owns the top and bottom, White owns the left and right.
- Black moves first. On each turn, place one stone of your color on any empty cell. Stones are never moved or removed once placed.
- There is no capturing. Stones connect only through shared edges, so adjacent stones of the same color form a connected group — the board simply fills up over time.
- Black wins by forming an unbroken chain of black stones from the top edge to the bottom edge. White wins by linking the left edge to the right edge.
- The four corner cells each touch two edges, so they count toward both players' connection goals — a useful escape route when you are pushed to the side.
- A completed game always has a winner: a draw is impossible on a Hex board, so exactly one player connects their two sides.
Strategy Tips
Advance along bridges: place two stones on opposite corners of the same 2×2 block of cells — they share two empty neighbors, so the opponent cannot cut both. Bridges are how you cross the board safely.
Play toward the center: central stones touch cells in every direction, so they belong to more possible paths. A strong center keeps both of your edges reachable.
Create two threats at once: a move that leaves you two different ways to complete a connection forces the opponent to block one and lose to the other. Double threats win Hex games.
Read the whole path and learn edge templates: don't only fight the local skirmish — trace your connection end to end and memorize the proven shapes that link to your own edges (templates such as ladders). And since there is no capture, defense means cutting the opponent's paths.
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