## 9 April 2018

### Hex

Hex is a board game on hexagonal grid, theoretically of any size and several possible shapes, but traditionally as an $11 \times 11$ rhombus. Other popular dimensions are $13 \times 13$ and $19\times 19$ as a result of the game's relationship to the older game of Go.

The game was invented by the Danish mathematician Piet Hein, who introduced it in $1942$ at the Niels Bohr Institute, and also it was independently invented by mathematician John Nash in $1947$ at Princeton University. It became known in Denmark under the name Polygon (thought that Hein called it CON-TAC-TIX). According to Martin Gardner, some students at Princeton University also referred to the game as John (according to some sources this was because they played the game using the mosaic floor of the bathroom). In $1952$ Parker Brothers marketed a version. They gave the name of Hex for their version, later becoming known by this name.

Hex is an abstract strategy game that belongs to the general category of "connection" games.

Rules

Each player has an allocated color; red or blue are the conventional colors. Players take turns placing a stone of their color on a single cell in the board. The objective is to form a path with their stones that connect the opposite sides of the board marked by their color before your opponent connect his sides similarly. The first player to complete his connection wins.