Hex
Two players, one rhombus of 121 hexagons, and the plainest goal on this site: join your two sides of the board before the other player joins theirs. It cannot end in a draw, and the second player may take your opening stone instead of answering it.
The rules
- The board is a rhombus of hexagons, eleven cells on every side, so 121 cells in all. The columns are lettered a to k and the rows numbered 1 to 11, so every cell has a name like e5.
- Red joins the two upright sides of the board, left and right. Blue joins the two sloping sides, upper and lower. The cell in each corner belongs to both of the edges that meet there, so it counts for either player.
- Take turns placing one stone on any empty cell. A stone is never moved, never taken off the board, and never changes colour, with one exception on the second player's first turn.
- You win the moment your own stones touch all the way from one of your sides to the other. Two stones touch if they share an edge, and every cell has six neighbours, so a run of stones can go sideways as readily as forwards.
- On their first turn, and only then, the second player may take the opening stone instead of placing one of their own. It becomes theirs, mirrored to the matching cell on the other side of the long diagonal, and the first player moves again. This is the only time a stone changes hands.
How a game ends
- The game ends the moment somebody joins their two sides, and the chain that did it is marked on the board.
- It cannot end in a draw. Fill the board any way at all and exactly one of the two players has joined their sides: that is a property of the shape rather than a rule anybody has to enforce, and it is what makes Hex unlike every other game here.
- A resignation ends the game against that player, and so does a missed deadline: the deadline is set when the game is made, and running out of time loses it.
Worth knowing before you start
- The middle is worth more than the edges. A stone in the centre has six ways to carry on and a stone on the rim has four, so the shortest route across is rarely the best one.
- Two stones a short step apart, with two empty cells between them that touch both, are already joined even though nothing connects them yet: if the other player takes one of the two, you take the other. Building with these rather than in a solid line is most of what improves a beginner.
- Which is why a strong opening is a poor opening. The second player is allowed to take it, so a stone in the middle is usually swapped away; players open somewhere modest on purpose and let the other side decide.
- The corners at a1 and k11 are the weakest cells on the board, because each sits where two sides meet at the sharpest angle and reaches almost nothing. They are the classic opening for exactly that reason: nobody wants to take one.
The seed decides who places first and is published when the game ends, so the choice can be checked afterwards. Nothing else in this game is decided by chance: there are no dice, no cards, and nothing is hidden from either player at any point.
Hex terms
- A chain
- A run of your own stones, each touching the next, with no gap in it. Joining your two sides with one is the whole game.
- The swap
- The second player's right to take the opening stone rather than answer it, on their first turn and never again. It is what stops going first being an advantage.
- A bridge
- Two of your stones a short step apart with two empty cells that touch both. They cannot be cut: whichever of the two the other player takes, you take the other.
- The long diagonal
- The line of cells from a1 to k11. A stone taken by the swap is mirrored across it, and a stone already on it stays exactly where it is and only changes colour.