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Hex (board game)

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349:, who played Hex at Princeton in the 1940s, so that Nash may have subconsciously picked up the idea. Hein wrote to Gardner in 1957 expressing doubt that Nash discovered Hex independently. Gardner was unable to independently verify or refute Nash's claim. Gardner privately wrote to Hein: "I discussed it with the editor, and we decided that the charitable thing to do was to give Nash the benefit of the doubt. ... The fact that you invented the game before anyone else is undisputed. Any number of people can come along later and say that they thought of the same thing at some later date, but this means little and nobody really cares." In a later letter to Hein, Gardner also wrote: "Just between you and me, and off the record, I think you hit the nail on the head when you referred to a 'flash of a suggestion' which came to Mr. Nash from a Danish source, and which he later forgot about. It seems the most likely explanation." 719:
boards in 2002 and the center opening on 9×9 boards in 2003. In 2009, Philip Henderson, Broderick Arneson and Ryan B. Hayward completed the analysis of the 8×8 board with a computer search, solving all the possible openings. In 2013, Jakub Pawlewicz and Ryan B. Hayward solved all openings for 9×9 boards, and one (the most-central) opening move on the 10×10 board. Since Gardner first postulated in his column in Scientific American in 1957, albeit speciously, that any first play on the short diagonal is a winning play, for all solved game boards up to n=9, that has indeed been the case. In addition, for all boards except n=2 and n=4, there have been numerous additional winning first moves; the number of winning first moves generally is ≥ n²/2.
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the same color and two empty spaces, where the two stones do not touch. If the opponent plays in either space, the player plays in the other, creating a contiguous chain. There are also safely connected patterns which connect stones to edges. There are many more safely connected patterns, some quite complex, built up of simpler ones like those shown. Patterns and paths can be disrupted by the opponent before they are complete, so the configuration of the board during an actual game often looks like a patchwork rather than something planned or designed.
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mentioned it as one of his design criteria for Hex in the original Politiken article. Hein also stated this fact as "a barrier for your opponent is a connection for you". John Nash wrote up a proof of this fact around 1949, but apparently did not publish the proof. Its first exposition appears in an in-house technical report in 1952, in which Nash states that "connection and blocking the opponent are equivalent acts". A more rigorous proof was published by
358: 157:. Each player is assigned a pair of opposite sides of the board, which they must try to connect by alternately placing a stone of their color onto any empty hex. Once placed, the stones are never moved or removed. A player wins when they successfully connect their sides together through a chain of adjacent stones. Draws are impossible in Hex due to the 783:
are further apart can win regardless of who plays first. On boards with equal dimensions, the first player can win on a board with an even number of cells per side, and the second player can win on a board with an odd number. On boards with an even number, one of the first player's winning moves is always to place a stone in the acute corner.
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Dark Hex (also known as Phantom Hex) is an imperfect information version of Hex. The players are not exposed to each other's stones at any point in the game unless they discover them first. The game is played in the presence of an umpire where each player first verifies the move if its a collision or
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An informal proof of the no-draw property of Hex can be sketched as follows: consider the connected component of one of the red edges. This component either includes the opposite red edge, in which case Red has a connection, or else it does not, in which case the blue stones along the boundary of the
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A "safely connected" pattern is composed of stones of the player's color and open spaces which can be joined into a chain, an unbroken sequence of edge-wise adjacent stones, no matter how the opponent plays. One of the simplest such patterns is the bridge, which consists of a diamond of two stones of
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From the proof of a winning strategy for the first player, it is known that the Hex board must have a complex type of connectivity which has never been solved. Play consists of creating small patterns which have a simpler type of connectivity called "safely connected", and joining them into sequences
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The players take turns placing a stone of their color on a single cell on the board. The most common convention is for Red or Black to go first. Once placed, stones are not moved, replaced, or removed from the board. Each player's goal is to form a connected path of their own stones linking their two
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The first player can now adopt the following strategy. They make an arbitrary move. Thereafter they play the winning second player strategy assumed above. If in playing this strategy, they are required to play on the cell where an arbitrary move was made, they make another arbitrary move. In this
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grid of hexagons, typically of size 11×11, although other sizes are also possible. Each player has an allocated color, conventionally red and blue, or black and white. Each player is also assigned two opposite board edges. The hexagons on each of the four corners belong to both adjacent board edges.
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Cazenave, Tristan; Chen, Yen-Chi; Chen, Guan-Wei; Chen, Shi-Yu; Chiu, Xian-Dong; Dehos, Julien; Elsa, Maria; Gong, Qucheng; Hu, Hengyuan; Khalidov, Vasil; Li, Cheng-Ling; Lin, Hsin-I; Lin, Yu-Jin; Martinet, Xavier; Mella, Vegard; Rapin, Jeremy; Roziere, Baptiste; Synnaeve, Gabriel; Teytaud, Fabien;
642:, the first player has a theoretical winning strategy. This fact was mentioned by Hein in his notes for a lecture he gave in 1943: "in contrast to most other games, it can be proved that the first player in theory always can win, that is, if she could see to the end of all possible lines of play". 872:
tournaments reported from Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, UK and the US. One of the largest Hex competitions is organized by the International Committee of Mathematical Games in Paris, France, which is annually held since 2013.
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variant of Hex is called "Rex", in which each player tries to force their opponent to make a chain. Rex is slower than Hex since, on any empty board with equal dimensions, the losing player can delay a loss until the entire board is full. On boards with unequal dimensions, the player whose sides
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There are weaker types of connectivity than "safely connected" which exist between stones or between safely connected patterns which have multiple spaces between them. The middle part of the game consists of creating a network of such weakly connected stones and patterns which hopefully will allow
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The game may be played on a rectangular grid like a chess, checker or go board, by considering that spaces (intersections in the case of go) are connected in one diagonal direction but not the other. The game may be played with paper and pencil on a rectangular array of dots or graph paper in the
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In 2002, Jing Yang, Simon Liao and Mirek Pawlak found an explicit winning strategy for the first player on Hex boards of size 7×7 using a decomposition method with a set of reusable local patterns. They extended the method to weakly solve the center pair of topologically congruent openings on 8×8
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It is not difficult to convince oneself by exposition, that hex cannot end in a draw, referred to as the "hex theorem". I.e., no matter how the board is filled with stones, there will always be one and only one player who has connected their edges. This fact was known to Piet Hein in 1942, who
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to Hex. This result means that there is no efficient (polynomial time in board size) algorithm to solve an arbitrary Hex position unless there is an efficient algorithm for all PSPACE problems, which is widely believed not to be the case. However, it doesn't rule out the possibility of a simple
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constructed an analog Hex playing machine, which was essentially a resistance network with resistors for edges and light bulbs for vertices. The move to be made corresponded to a certain specified saddle point in the network. The machine played a reasonably good game of Hex. Later, researchers
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All known proofs of this fact are non-constructive, i.e., the proof gives no indication of what the actual winning strategy is. Here is a condensed version of a proof that is attributed to John Nash c. 1949. The proof works for a number of games including Hex, and has come to be called the
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Success at Hex requires a particular ability to visualize synthesis of complex patterns in a heuristic way, and estimating whether such patterns are 'strongly enough' connected to enable an eventual win. The skill is somewhat similar to the visualization of patterns, sequencing of moves, and
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The game of Y is Hex played on a triangular grid of hexagons; the object is for either player to connect all three sides of the triangle. Y is a generalization of Hex to the extent that any position on a Hex board can be represented as an equivalent position on a larger Y board.
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that form a "path". Eventually, one of the players will succeed in forming a safely connected path of stones and spaces between their sides of the board and win. The final stage of the game, if necessary, consists of filling in the empty spaces in the path.
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Until 2019, humans remained better than computers at least on big boards such as 19x19, but on Oct 30, 2019 the program Mootwo won against the human player with the best Elo rank on LittleGolem, also winner of various tournaments (the game is available
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connected component form a winning path for Blue. The concept of a connected component is well-defined because in a hexagonal grid, two cells can only meet in an edge or not at all; it is not possible for cells to overlap in a single point.
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Initially in 1942, Hein distributed the game, which was then called Polygon, in the form of 50-sheet game pads. Each sheet contained an empty 11×11 empty board that could be played on with pencils or pens. In 1952,
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Starting about 2006, the field of computer Hex came to be dominated by Monte Carlo tree search methods borrowed from successful computer implementations of Go. These replaced earlier implementations that combined
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and growing architectures (the program can learn on a small board, and then extrapolate on a big board, as opposed to justified popular claims about earlier artificial intelligence methods such as the original
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When it is clear to both players who will win the game, it is customary, but not required, for the losing player to resign. In practice, most games of Hex end with one of the players resigning.
285:(also called the pie rule) is normally used. This rule allows the second player to choose whether to switch positions with the first player after the first player makes the first move. 427:
It was known to Hein in 1942 that Hex cannot end in a draw; in fact, one of his design criteria for the game was that "exactly one of the two players can connect their two sides".
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This extra piece cannot interfere with the first player's imitation of the winning strategy, for an extra piece is never a disadvantage. Therefore, the first player can win.
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Because we have now contradicted our assumption that there is a winning strategy for the second player, we conclude that there is no winning strategy for the second player.
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A "bridge" (A ↔ C) is a simple example of a safely connected pattern. It consists of two stones of the same color (A and C), and a pair of open spaces (B and D).
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If the board has been completely filled, then one player must have won already, and it must be the first player since they have been playing a winning strategy.
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Havannah is game based on Hex. It differs from Hex in that it is played on a hexagonal grid of hexagons and a win is achieved by forming one of three patterns.
402:-inch (140 mm × 220 mm) 50-sheet pad of ruled Hex grids. Hex is currently published by Nestorgames in a 11×11 size, a 14×14, and a 19×19 size. 710:
In 11×11 Hex, the state space complexity is approximately 2.4×10; versus 4.6×10 for chess. The game tree complexity is approximately 10 versus 10 for chess.
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also sold a version under the "Con-tac-tix" name in 1968. Hex was also issued as one of the games in the 1974 3M Paper Games Series; the game contained a
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H. J. van den Herik; J. W. H. M. Uiterwijk; J. van Rijswijck (2002). "Games solved: Now and in the future". Artificial Intelligence. 134 (1–2): 277–311.
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winning strategy for the initial position (on boards of arbitrary size), or a simple winning strategy for all positions on a board of a particular size.
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Since Hex is a finite two-player game with perfect information either the first or second player has a winning strategy, or both can force a draw by
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Despite the simplicity of its rules, the game has deep strategy and sharp tactics. It also has profound mathematical underpinnings related to the
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attempting to solve the game and develop Hex-playing computer algorithms emulated Shannon's network to create strong computer players.
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Teytaud, Olivier; Ye, Shi-Cheng; Ye, Yi-Jun; Yen, Shi-Jim; Zagoruyko, Sergey (27 January 2020). "Polygames: Improved Zero Learning".
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Popular dimensions other than the standard 11×11 are 13×13 and 19×19 as a result of the game's relationship to the older game of
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proved that determining whether a position in a game of generalized Hex played on arbitrary graphs is a winning position is
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the player, by filling in the weak links, to construct just one safely connected path between sides as the game progresses.
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Sanjeev Arora, Boaz Barak, "Computational Complexity: A Modern Approach". Cambridge University Press, 2009. Section 4.3
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Since draws are impossible (see above), we can conclude that either the first or second player has a winning strategy.
2162: 2090: 2013: 1659: 1030: 543: 200:; they are no longer in production. Hex can also be played with paper and pencil on hexagonally ruled graph paper. 2147: 2115: 504: 433:
In 1952 John Nash wrote up an existence proof that on symmetrical boards, the first player has a winning strategy.
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loop. Like in Hex, there are no ties, and there is no position in which both players have a winning connection.
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In 2002, the first explicit winning strategy (a reduction-type strategy) on a 7×7 board was described.
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Nash, John (Feb. 1952). Rand Corp. technical report D-1164: Some Games and Machines for Playing Them.
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board, although 13×13 and 19×19 boards are also popular. The board is composed of hexagons called
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search computer algorithms, Hex boards up to size 9×9 (as of 2016) have been completely solved.
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Marcus, Gary (17 January 2018). "Innateness, AlphaZero, and Artificial Intelligence".
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It was also known to Hein that the first player has a theoretical winning strategy.
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published a proof that the determinacy of Hex is equivalent to the two-dimensional
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Hayward, Ryan B.; Rijswijck, van, Jack (6 October 2006). "Hex and combinatorics".
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due to an article by Hein in the 26 December 1942 edition of the Danish newspaper
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Other connection games with similar objectives but different structures include
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not. Based on the continuation of this point the game has different versions.
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The end of a game of Hex on a standard 11×11 board. Here, White wins the game.
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Stefan Reisch (1981). "Hex ist PSPACE-vollständig (Hex is PSPACE-complete)".
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way they play the winning strategy with one extra piece always on the board.
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Hex had an incarnation as the question board from the television game show
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boardsize invariance thanks to fully convolutional neural networks (as in
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marketed a version of the game under the name "Hex", and the name stuck.
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in which players attempt to connect opposite sides of a rhombus-shaped
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David Gale (1979). "The Game of Hex and Brouwer Fixed-Point Theorem".
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board edges. The player who complete such a connection wins the game.
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This article is about the abstract strategy game. For other uses, see
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The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles & Diversions
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Unpublished white papers, formerly @ www.ee.umanitoba.com/~jingyang/
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Consequently, there must be a winning strategy for the first player.
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https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/documents/2015/D1164.pdf
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Lehman, Alfred (1964). "A Solution of the Shannon Switching Game".
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On a decomposition method for finding winning strategy in Hex game
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Anshelevich, V. (2002). A Hierarchical Approach to Computer Hex.
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Hex strategy for beginners by Matthew Seymour and Eric Silverman
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In 1981, the Stefan Reisch showed that Hex is PSPACE-complete.
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The game was rediscovered in 1948 or 1949 by the mathematician
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on December 26, 1942. It was later marketed as a board game in
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gathering theoretical work on Hex (moved - top level pages at
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Gardner, Martin, Scientific American, July, 1957, pgs 145-151
1228:(4). Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics: 687–725. 732: 625: 618:-player variants proves the fixed-point theorem in general. 500: 302: 1718:
Searching for Solutions in Games and Artificial Intelligence
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Let us assume that the second player has a winning strategy.
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11×11 Hex gameboard showing a winning configuration for Blue
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Reisch, Stefan (1981). "Hex ist PSPACE-vollständig".
1948:"Dark Hex: A Large Scale Imperfect Information Game" 1538:(10). Mathematical Association of America: 818–827. 1351: 1130:. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. pp. 127–138. 281:
To compensate for the first player's advantage, the
241:Hex is a special case of the "node" version of the 2118:on A4 or A3 paper, for use with standard Go stones 1014: 138:in 1942 and later rediscovered and popularized by 2082:University of Alberta Computer Hex Research Group 1044: 1042: 748:same way by using two different colored pencils. 614:, and that the determinacy of higher-dimensional 2129: 2123:https://sites.google.com/view/cavegames-hex/home 2008:, Browne C.(2000), A.K. Peters Ltd. Natick, MA. 1777: 1693:: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown ( 877:. During this competition the pie rule is used. 840:, where the players have the goal of creating a 2049:Interactive tactical puzzles by Matthew Seymour 1856:. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 154. 1831:. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 175. 1267: 1178:Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 1079:. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 156. 984: 982: 980: 1739:, Jing Yang, Simon Liao and Mirek Pawlak, 2002 1654:. Natick, MA: A.K. Peters, Ltd. pp. 5–6. 1509:. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. p. 99. 1176:Shannon, C. (1953). "Computers and Automata". 1039: 978: 976: 974: 972: 970: 968: 966: 964: 962: 960: 462: 176:. The game was first published under the name 1683:. Archived from the original on 29 June 2011. 1605: 922:, a set of 6 games played on hexavalent grids 134:. Hex was invented by mathematician and poet 2093:; downloadable material no longer available) 1822: 1820: 1436: 1434: 1432: 2006:Hex Strategy: Making the Right Connections 1851: 1826: 1504: 1395: 1393: 1391: 1125: 1074: 1021:. N.Y., N.Y.: Simon and Schuster. pp.  988: 957: 681: 440:showed that Hex cannot be represented as a 1564: 1529: 1008: 1006: 1004: 1002: 1000: 626:First-player win, informal existence proof 489:and several universities) using a mix of: 34: 2112:with links to related mathematical papers 1854:Hex, inside and out : the full story 1829:Hex, inside and out : the full story 1817: 1582: 1507:Hex, inside and out : the full story 1429: 1379: 1358: 1273: 1128:Hex, inside and out : the full story 1077:Hex, inside and out : the full story 836:Projex is a variation of Hex played on a 487:Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research 1778:Pawlewicz, Jakub; Hayward, Ryan (2013). 1677:"Number of chess diagrams and positions" 1388: 566: 405: 356: 260: 216:that belongs to the general category of 196:marketed a version of it in 1952 called 1852:Hayward, Ryan B.; Toft, Bjarne (2019). 1827:Hayward, Ryan B.; Toft, Bjarne (2019). 1505:Hayward, Ryan B.; Toft, Bjarne (2019). 1175: 1126:Hayward, Ryan B.; Toft, Bjarne (2019). 1075:Hayward, Ryan B.; Toft, Bjarne (2019). 1012: 997: 989:Hayward, Ryan B.; Toft, Bjarne (2019). 145:It is traditionally played on an 11×11 2130: 2068:history, classification and complexity 1649: 1373: 1238: 1219: 743:Rectangular grids and paper and pencil 731:(also known as Gale and Bridg-It) and 714:Computed strategies for smaller boards 587: 1099: 361:A Parker Brothers edition of the game 1894: 1102:"The Lost Years of a Nobel Laureate" 1064:from the original on 9 October 2022. 773: 542:Relevant discussion may be found on 518: 422: 341:, who featured Hex in his July 1957 230:. Since the game can never end in a 1976:"Games and Puzzles 1973-08: Iss 16" 1796:from the original on 9 October 2022 991:Hex, Inside and Out: The Full Story 473:, published in the early 1980s for 309:, who introduced it in 1942 at the 13: 1999: 1978:. A H C Publications. August 1973. 1945: 1897:"How I invented games and why not" 1100:Nasar, Sylvia (13 November 1994). 700:quantified Boolean formula problem 584:evaluating of positions in chess. 352: 91:30 minutes – 2 hours (11×11 board) 14: 2194: 2034: 1674: 1532:The American Mathematical Monthly 1309:, Facebook Incubator, 28 May 2020 2043:free Net book by Matthew Seymour 1565:Even, S.; Tarjan, R. E. (1976). 1152:"nestorgames - fun to take away" 523: 1982: 1968: 1954: 1939: 1914: 1888: 1879: 1870: 1845: 1808: 1780:"Scalable Parallel DFPN Search" 1771: 1751: 1742: 1723: 1710: 1701: 1668: 1643: 1634: 1599: 1558: 1523: 1498: 1479: 1452: 1443: 1420: 1411: 1402: 1367: 1345: 1320: 1297: 1232: 1213: 938: 786: 463:Shannon's Hex-playing heuristic 324: 2143:Board games introduced in 1947 2138:Board games introduced in 1942 1204: 1169: 1144: 1119: 1093: 1068: 859: 751: 592: 1: 951: 301:The game was invented by the 132:board made of hexagonal cells 2121:300dpi printable Hex board 296: 222:. It can be classified as a 203: 16:Abstract strategy board game 7: 1306:facebookincubator/Polygames 903: 847: 817: 722: 612:Brouwer fixed-point theorem 604:Symbols, Signals, and Noise 514: 436:In 1964, the mathematician 166:Brouwer fixed-point theorem 10: 2199: 1962:"ICGA – Computer Olympiad" 1473:10.1016/j.disc.2006.01.029 1190:10.1109/jrproc.1953.274273 880: 821: 806: 648:strategy-stealing argument 291: 208:Hex is a finite, 2-player 18: 2053:A Beginner's Guide to Hex 2016:(trade paperback, 363pgs) 1990:"Jeux & stratégie 06" 1787:Proc. Computers and Games 1057:. Parker Brothers. 1968. 831: 760:. According to the book 343:Mathematical Games column 245:. Hex can be played as a 103: 95: 87: 79: 71: 53: 45: 33: 21:Hex game (disambiguation) 2163:PSPACE-complete problems 931: 873:Hex is also part of the 682:Computational complexity 256: 180:in the Danish newspaper 2148:Abstract strategy games 2064:6 November 2020 at the 1681:John's Chess Playground 1492:21 January 2017 at the 864:As of 2016, there were 704:conjunctive normal form 453:In the 2000s, by using 226:, a particular type of 2173:Paper-and-pencil games 729:Shannon switching game 572: 362: 266: 243:Shannon switching game 214:abstract strategy game 62:Abstract strategy game 2168:Parker Brothers games 2041:Hex: A Strategy Guide 1895:Freeling, Christian. 1716:Victor Allis (1994). 1584:10.1145/321978.321989 838:real projective plane 824:Havannah (board game) 634:on any board of size 570: 544:Talk:Hex (board game) 406:Shannon's Hex machine 360: 264: 251:paper-and-pencil game 2183:Theorems in topology 2116:Printable Hex boards 1764:16 July 2011 at the 1735:2 April 2012 at the 1467:(19–20): 2515–2528. 1461:Discrete Mathematics 1013:Gardner, M. (1959). 896:Jeux & Stratégie 865: 802: 493:zero-learning as in 335:Princeton University 311:Niels Bohr Institute 2020:HEX: The Full Story 1885:Browne (2000) p.310 1876:Gardner (1959) p.78 1156:www.nestorgames.com 888:Games & Puzzles 630:In Hex without the 588:Mathematical theory 269:Hex is played on a 210:perfect information 161:of the game board. 30: 1650:Browne, C (2000). 1620:10.1007/bf00288964 1571:Journal of the ACM 1253:10.1007/BF00288964 1106:The New York Times 1051:Con-tac-tix manual 915:Mathematical games 573: 363: 267: 224:Maker-Breaker game 174:graph connectivity 123:) is a two player 28: 2028:978-0-367-14422-7 1946:Tapkan, M.Bedir. 1426:Browne, pp. 71–77 1417:Browne, pp. 29–30 1275:Kucherawy, Murray 875:Computer Olympiad 774:Rex (Reverse Hex) 656:Zermelo's theorem 602:in his 1961 book 561: 560: 467:alpha-beta search 423:Research timeline 125:abstract strategy 114: 113: 2190: 2158:Positional games 2153:Connection games 2078:dedicated to Hex 1994: 1993: 1992:. December 1980. 1986: 1980: 1979: 1972: 1966: 1965: 1958: 1952: 1951: 1943: 1937: 1936: 1934: 1932: 1918: 1912: 1911: 1909: 1907: 1892: 1886: 1883: 1877: 1874: 1868: 1867: 1849: 1843: 1842: 1824: 1815: 1812: 1806: 1805: 1803: 1801: 1795: 1784: 1775: 1769: 1755: 1749: 1746: 1740: 1727: 1721: 1714: 1708: 1705: 1699: 1698: 1692: 1684: 1672: 1666: 1665: 1647: 1641: 1638: 1632: 1631: 1608:Acta Informatica 1603: 1597: 1596: 1586: 1562: 1556: 1555: 1527: 1521: 1520: 1502: 1496: 1483: 1477: 1476: 1456: 1450: 1447: 1441: 1438: 1427: 1424: 1418: 1415: 1409: 1406: 1400: 1397: 1386: 1385: 1383: 1371: 1365: 1364: 1362: 1349: 1343: 1342: 1340: 1338: 1324: 1318: 1317: 1316: 1314: 1301: 1295: 1294: 1292: 1290: 1277:(January 1984). 1271: 1265: 1264: 1241:Acta Informatica 1236: 1230: 1229: 1217: 1211: 1208: 1202: 1201: 1173: 1167: 1166: 1164: 1162: 1148: 1142: 1141: 1123: 1117: 1116: 1114: 1112: 1097: 1091: 1090: 1072: 1066: 1065: 1063: 1056: 1046: 1037: 1036: 1020: 1010: 995: 994: 986: 945: 942: 910:Connection games 869: 763:A Beautiful Mind 556: 553: 547: 527: 519: 401: 400: 396: 393: 387: 386: 382: 379: 234:, Hex is also a 219:connection games 38: 31: 27: 2198: 2197: 2193: 2192: 2191: 2189: 2188: 2187: 2128: 2127: 2066:Wayback Machine 2047:500 Hex Puzzles 2037: 2002: 2000:Further reading 1997: 1988: 1987: 1983: 1974: 1973: 1969: 1960: 1959: 1955: 1944: 1940: 1930: 1928: 1920: 1919: 1915: 1905: 1903: 1893: 1889: 1884: 1880: 1875: 1871: 1864: 1850: 1846: 1839: 1825: 1818: 1813: 1809: 1799: 1797: 1793: 1782: 1776: 1772: 1766:Wayback Machine 1758:Solving 8x8 Hex 1756: 1752: 1747: 1743: 1737:Wayback Machine 1728: 1724: 1715: 1711: 1706: 1702: 1686: 1685: 1673: 1669: 1662: 1648: 1644: 1639: 1635: 1604: 1600: 1563: 1559: 1544:10.2307/2320146 1528: 1524: 1517: 1503: 1499: 1494:Wayback Machine 1484: 1480: 1457: 1453: 1448: 1444: 1439: 1430: 1425: 1421: 1416: 1412: 1407: 1403: 1398: 1389: 1372: 1368: 1350: 1346: 1336: 1334: 1332:ai.facebook.com 1326: 1325: 1321: 1312: 1310: 1303: 1302: 1298: 1288: 1286: 1272: 1268: 1237: 1233: 1218: 1214: 1209: 1205: 1184:(10): 1234–41. 1174: 1170: 1160: 1158: 1150: 1149: 1145: 1138: 1124: 1120: 1110: 1108: 1098: 1094: 1087: 1073: 1069: 1061: 1054: 1048: 1047: 1040: 1033: 1011: 998: 987: 958: 954: 949: 948: 943: 939: 934: 906: 883: 871: 862: 856: 850: 842:noncontractible 834: 826: 820: 811: 805: 791: 776: 754: 745: 725: 716: 696:PSPACE-complete 684: 628: 595: 590: 557: 551: 548: 541: 534:needs expansion 528: 517: 425: 408: 398: 394: 391: 389: 384: 380: 377: 375: 372:Parker Brothers 368:Parker Brothers 355: 353:Published games 337:. According to 327: 299: 294: 259: 236:determined game 228:positional game 206: 194:Parker Brothers 188:under the name 66:Connection game 64: 60: 41: 24: 17: 12: 11: 5: 2196: 2186: 2185: 2180: 2175: 2170: 2165: 2160: 2155: 2150: 2145: 2140: 2126: 2125: 2119: 2113: 2103: 2094: 2084: 2079: 2069: 2056: 2050: 2044: 2036: 2035:External links 2033: 2032: 2031: 2017: 2001: 1998: 1996: 1995: 1981: 1967: 1953: 1938: 1913: 1887: 1878: 1869: 1863:978-0367144258 1862: 1844: 1838:978-0367144258 1837: 1816: 1807: 1770: 1750: 1741: 1722: 1709: 1700: 1667: 1660: 1642: 1633: 1614:(2): 167–191. 1598: 1577:(4): 710–719. 1557: 1522: 1516:978-0367144258 1515: 1497: 1478: 1451: 1442: 1428: 1419: 1410: 1401: 1387: 1366: 1344: 1319: 1296: 1266: 1247:(2): 167–191. 1231: 1212: 1203: 1168: 1143: 1137:978-0367144258 1136: 1118: 1092: 1086:978-0367144258 1085: 1067: 1038: 1031: 996: 955: 953: 950: 947: 946: 936: 935: 933: 930: 929: 928: 923: 917: 912: 905: 902: 901: 900: 892: 882: 879: 868:over-the-board 861: 858: 849: 846: 833: 830: 822:Main article: 819: 816: 807:Main article: 804: 801: 790: 785: 775: 772: 753: 750: 744: 741: 724: 721: 715: 712: 683: 680: 679: 678: 675: 672: 669: 665: 662: 659: 627: 624: 600:John R. Pierce 594: 591: 589: 586: 559: 558: 531: 529: 522: 516: 513: 512: 511: 507: 497: 442:binary matroid 424: 421: 412:Claude Shannon 407: 404: 354: 351: 339:Martin Gardner 326: 323: 305:mathematician 298: 295: 293: 290: 258: 255: 205: 202: 112: 111: 105: 101: 100: 97: 93: 92: 89: 85: 84: 81: 77: 76: 73: 69: 68: 55: 51: 50: 47: 43: 42: 39: 15: 9: 6: 4: 3: 2: 2195: 2184: 2181: 2179: 2176: 2174: 2171: 2169: 2166: 2164: 2161: 2159: 2156: 2154: 2151: 2149: 2146: 2144: 2141: 2139: 2136: 2135: 2133: 2124: 2120: 2117: 2114: 2111: 2107: 2104: 2102: 2101:BoardGameGeek 2098: 2095: 2092: 2088: 2085: 2083: 2080: 2077: 2073: 2070: 2067: 2063: 2060: 2059:Thesis on Hex 2057: 2054: 2051: 2048: 2045: 2042: 2039: 2038: 2029: 2025: 2021: 2018: 2015: 2014:1-56881-117-9 2011: 2007: 2004: 2003: 1991: 1985: 1977: 1971: 1963: 1957: 1949: 1942: 1927: 1926:BoardGameGeek 1923: 1917: 1902: 1898: 1891: 1882: 1873: 1865: 1859: 1855: 1848: 1840: 1834: 1830: 1823: 1821: 1811: 1792: 1788: 1781: 1774: 1767: 1763: 1759: 1754: 1745: 1738: 1734: 1731: 1726: 1719: 1713: 1704: 1696: 1690: 1682: 1678: 1671: 1663: 1661:1-56881-117-9 1657: 1653: 1646: 1637: 1629: 1625: 1621: 1617: 1613: 1609: 1602: 1594: 1590: 1585: 1580: 1576: 1572: 1568: 1561: 1553: 1549: 1545: 1541: 1537: 1533: 1526: 1518: 1512: 1508: 1501: 1495: 1491: 1488: 1482: 1474: 1470: 1466: 1462: 1455: 1446: 1437: 1435: 1433: 1423: 1414: 1405: 1396: 1394: 1392: 1382: 1377: 1370: 1361: 1356: 1348: 1333: 1329: 1323: 1308: 1307: 1300: 1285:. p. 112 1284: 1280: 1276: 1270: 1262: 1258: 1254: 1250: 1246: 1242: 1235: 1227: 1223: 1216: 1207: 1199: 1195: 1191: 1187: 1183: 1179: 1172: 1157: 1153: 1147: 1139: 1133: 1129: 1122: 1107: 1103: 1096: 1088: 1082: 1078: 1071: 1060: 1053: 1052: 1045: 1043: 1034: 1032:0-226-28254-6 1028: 1024: 1019: 1018: 1009: 1007: 1005: 1003: 1001: 992: 985: 983: 981: 979: 977: 975: 973: 971: 969: 967: 965: 963: 961: 956: 941: 937: 927: 924: 921: 918: 916: 913: 911: 908: 907: 898: 897: 893: 890: 889: 885: 884: 878: 876: 870: 857: 854: 845: 843: 839: 829: 825: 815: 810: 800: 798: 797: 789: 784: 781: 771: 769: 765: 764: 759: 749: 740: 738: 734: 730: 720: 711: 708: 705: 701: 697: 693: 692:Robert Tarjan 689: 676: 673: 670: 666: 663: 660: 657: 653: 652: 651: 649: 643: 641: 637: 633: 623: 619: 617: 613: 609: 605: 601: 585: 581: 577: 569: 565: 555: 552:November 2023 545: 539: 535: 532:This section 530: 526: 521: 520: 508: 506: 502: 498: 496: 492: 491: 490: 488: 484: 478: 476: 472: 468: 464: 458: 456: 451: 448: 445: 443: 439: 438:Alfred Lehman 434: 431: 428: 420: 417: 413: 403: 373: 369: 359: 350: 348: 344: 340: 336: 332: 322: 320: 316: 312: 308: 304: 289: 286: 284: 279: 275: 272: 263: 254: 252: 248: 244: 239: 237: 233: 229: 225: 221: 220: 215: 212:game, and an 211: 201: 199: 195: 191: 187: 183: 179: 175: 171: 167: 162: 160: 156: 152: 148: 143: 141: 137: 133: 129: 126: 122: 119:(also called 118: 109: 106: 102: 98: 94: 90: 86: 82: 78: 74: 70: 67: 63: 59: 56: 52: 48: 44: 37: 32: 26: 22: 2178:Solved games 2019: 2005: 1984: 1970: 1956: 1941: 1929:. Retrieved 1925: 1916: 1904:. Retrieved 1900: 1890: 1881: 1872: 1853: 1847: 1828: 1810: 1798:. Retrieved 1786: 1773: 1753: 1744: 1725: 1717: 1712: 1703: 1680: 1670: 1652:Hex Strategy 1651: 1645: 1636: 1611: 1607: 1601: 1574: 1570: 1560: 1535: 1531: 1525: 1506: 1500: 1481: 1464: 1460: 1454: 1445: 1422: 1413: 1408:Browne, p.28 1404: 1369: 1347: 1335:. Retrieved 1331: 1322: 1311:, retrieved 1305: 1299: 1287:. Retrieved 1282: 1269: 1244: 1240: 1234: 1225: 1221: 1215: 1206: 1181: 1177: 1171: 1159:. Retrieved 1155: 1146: 1127: 1121: 1109:. Retrieved 1105: 1095: 1076: 1070: 1050: 1016: 993:. CRC Press. 990: 940: 920:GIPF project 894: 886: 863: 855: 851: 835: 827: 812: 796:Blockbusters 794: 792: 788:Blockbusters 787: 777: 761: 755: 746: 726: 717: 709: 685: 644: 639: 635: 629: 620: 615: 603: 596: 582: 578: 574: 562: 549: 538:adding to it 533: 479: 470: 459: 452: 449: 446: 435: 432: 429: 426: 410:About 1950, 409: 364: 328: 325:Nash's claim 318: 314: 300: 287: 280: 276: 268: 240: 217: 207: 197: 189: 181: 177: 163: 154: 150: 144: 120: 116: 115: 88:Playing time 49:1942–present 46:Years active 25: 2106:Game of Hex 2091:Hex archive 2087:Theory page 2030:(paperback) 1931:28 February 1279:"Hexmaster" 1161:3 September 860:Competition 752:Board sizes 688:Shimon Even 606:. In 1979, 593:Determinacy 477:computers. 475:Atari 8-bit 455:brute force 416:E. F. Moore 190:Con-tac-tix 2132:Categories 1906:19 October 1901:MindSports 1675:Tromp, J. 1449:Lasker, p. 1440:Browne, p. 1381:1801.05667 1360:2001.09832 1289:18 January 952:References 608:David Gale 247:board game 128:board game 80:Setup time 58:Board game 2110:MathWorld 1399:Browne p. 1111:23 August 768:John Nash 686:In 1976, 632:swap rule 510:AlphaGo). 495:AlphaZero 471:Hexmaster 347:Aage Bohr 331:John Nash 319:Politiken 307:Piet Hein 297:Invention 283:swap rule 204:Game type 182:Politiken 140:John Nash 136:Piet Hein 110:, tactics 2062:Archived 1922:"Projex" 1791:Archived 1762:Archived 1733:Archived 1689:cite web 1490:Archived 1198:51666906 1059:Archived 904:See also 848:Dark Hex 818:Havannah 809:Y (game) 723:Variants 515:Strategy 249:or as a 170:matroids 159:topology 108:Strategy 2072:HexWiki 1628:9125259 1593:8845949 1552:2320146 1261:9125259 881:Reviews 505:pooling 397:⁄ 383:⁄ 315:Polygon 292:History 271:rhombic 186:Denmark 178:Polygon 147:rhombus 72:Players 2026:  2012:  1860:  1835:  1800:21 May 1658:  1626:  1591:  1550:  1513:  1337:29 May 1313:29 May 1259:  1196:  1134:  1083:  1029:  832:Projex 780:misère 503:) and 303:Danish 192:, and 104:Skills 96:Chance 54:Genres 1794:(PDF) 1783:(PDF) 1624:S2CID 1589:S2CID 1548:JSTOR 1376:arXiv 1355:arXiv 1283:Antic 1257:S2CID 1222:JSIAM 1194:S2CID 1062:(PDF) 1055:(PDF) 1023:73–83 932:Notes 733:TwixT 501:U-Net 465:with 257:Rules 155:hexes 151:cells 2076:wiki 2074:, a 2024:ISBN 2010:ISBN 1933:2018 1908:2020 1858:ISBN 1833:ISBN 1802:2014 1695:link 1656:ISBN 1511:ISBN 1339:2020 1315:2020 1291:2019 1163:2020 1132:ISBN 1113:2017 1081:ISBN 1027:ISBN 778:The 690:and 483:here 414:and 388:-by- 232:draw 172:and 121:Nash 99:None 83:None 2108:at 2099:at 2097:Hex 1616:doi 1579:doi 1540:doi 1469:doi 1465:306 1249:doi 1186:doi 926:Tak 891:#16 702:in 333:at 198:Hex 153:or 117:Hex 29:Hex 2134:: 1924:. 1899:. 1819:^ 1789:. 1785:. 1760:, 1691:}} 1687:{{ 1679:. 1622:. 1612:15 1610:. 1587:. 1575:23 1573:. 1569:. 1546:. 1536:86 1534:. 1463:. 1431:^ 1390:^ 1330:. 1281:. 1255:. 1245:15 1243:. 1226:12 1224:. 1192:. 1182:41 1180:. 1154:. 1104:. 1041:^ 1025:. 999:^ 959:^ 899:#6 766:, 758:Go 739:. 737:Go 650:. 253:. 238:. 168:, 142:. 1964:. 1950:. 1935:. 1910:. 1866:. 1841:. 1804:. 1697:) 1664:. 1630:. 1618:: 1595:. 1581:: 1554:. 1542:: 1519:. 1475:. 1471:: 1384:. 1378:: 1363:. 1357:: 1341:. 1293:. 1263:. 1251:: 1200:. 1188:: 1165:. 1140:. 1115:. 1089:. 1035:. 803:Y 658:. 640:n 638:x 636:n 616:n 554:) 550:( 546:. 540:. 399:2 395:1 392:+ 390:8 385:2 381:1 378:+ 376:5 75:2 23:.

Index

Hex game (disambiguation)

Board game
Abstract strategy game
Connection game
Strategy
abstract strategy
board game
board made of hexagonal cells
Piet Hein
John Nash
rhombus
topology
Brouwer fixed-point theorem
matroids
graph connectivity
Denmark
Parker Brothers
perfect information
abstract strategy game
connection games
Maker-Breaker game
positional game
draw
determined game
Shannon switching game
board game
paper-and-pencil game

rhombic

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