How to Play Hex
Hex is a two-player abstract strategy game played on a rhombus-shaped board of hexagonal cells, most commonly in an 11x11 grid. One player connects top to bottom, the other connects left to right, and every cell placed brings them closer to victory or forces the opponent to respond. There is no luck involved: every outcome follows directly from the decisions both players make.
Players love Hex because it is genuinely simple to learn yet fiendishly hard to master. Unlike many abstract games, draws are mathematically impossible, so every game produces a definitive winner. It is played at kitchen tables, in maths classrooms, and in competitive puzzle and strategy communities worldwide.
A little history
Hex was independently invented twice in the 1940s. Danish mathematician and poet Piet Hein introduced the game in 1942 under the name Polygon at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. John Nash, the American mathematician, independently devised the same game around 1948 while at Princeton University, and it became known informally among students as Nash. The game was later commercialised under the name Hex in the early 1950s, and that name has stuck. Its earlier theoretical importance lies partly in Nash's use of it to illustrate the existence of winning strategies via a strategy-stealing argument, though detailed documentation of the precise commercial history before the 1950s is thin.
Setting up
- Place the board between both players so that each player faces two opposite sides of the rhombus. Mark or agree which pair of opposite sides belongs to each player.
- Each player takes all pieces of one colour. Agree who plays which colour before the first move.
- Decide who goes first, by any mutually agreeable method. Note: the swap rule (see Variations) is strongly recommended to balance first-move advantage.
- No pieces are placed before play begins. The board starts completely empty.
How to play
- Players alternate turns throughout the game. The first player places one piece of their colour on any empty hexagonal cell.
- On each subsequent turn, a player places exactly one piece of their colour on any empty cell. Pieces are never moved or removed once placed.
- A cell may only ever hold one piece. There are no captures and no removals.
- Play continues, alternating turns, until one player completes an unbroken chain of their own pieces connecting their two designated sides of the board.
- The chain must be continuous: each piece in it must share an edge with the next. Diagonal adjacency does not count; only the six shared edges of each hexagon create connections.
- Corner cells are adjacent to both sides that meet at that corner. A piece on a corner cell may count as part of either side's edge for the purposes of completing a chain.
- As soon as a winning chain is completed, the game ends immediately. The player who completed the chain wins.
Winning and scoring
The winner is the first player to place a chain of their pieces that forms an unbroken path from one of their sides to the other. The chain must be connected edge-to-edge across the board. Because every cell placed either advances your own chain or blocks the opponent, and because the board must eventually fill if no one wins sooner, a winner is guaranteed in every game. A draw is mathematically impossible on any Hex board, regardless of size.
The fine points
The most common dispute concerns corner cells. Each corner is simultaneously adjacent to two sides. The standard ruling is that a corner cell is treated as belonging to whichever player's chain it serves, and either player may use any corner cell freely. A piece on a corner does not belong exclusively to one side; it simply connects to whichever of that corner's two edges is useful for the chain being constructed.
A second frequent question is whether a completed chain must run in a straight line or follow a specific path. It does not. The chain may twist and turn in any direction across the board, provided every step is an edge-to-edge connection between adjacent hexagons. Players sometimes also dispute whether a game was actually won, particularly in long games with complex chains. The cleanest resolution is to trace the claimed chain cell by cell from one edge to the other before accepting the result.
How to win more often
- Control the centre early. The central cells connect to the most possible paths across the board, giving your pieces more bridging options than edge or corner placements.
- Think in terms of bridges and virtual connections. Two pieces two cells apart, with both connecting cells empty, form a virtual bridge: even if the opponent takes one gap, you take the other and the connection survives.
- Do not play reactively the whole game. Respond to threats, but always keep advancing your own chain. Pure defence loses because you never complete a path.
- Use the swap rule wisely. If you are the second player and the first player opens near the centre, swapping is usually correct. A strong central first move almost always favours the first player.
- Look for ladder escapes before committing to a ladder. A sequence of forced responses can march your chain to the edge, but only if you have an escape piece already in place ahead of the ladder's end point.
Variations
Swap Rule (Pie Rule)
After the first player places their opening piece, the second player may either pass and play normally, or swap sides, taking the first player's piece as their own and handing over their colour. This eliminates the first-move advantage that theoretical analysis shows the first player always holds. The swap rule is widely regarded as the standard competitive way to play and is strongly recommended for any serious game.
Misere Hex
In Misere Hex, the winning condition is reversed: the player who completes a connecting chain from their side to the other loses. This sounds simple but produces dramatically different strategy, since both players must connect while trying to force the opponent to close the final link. Misere Hex has been studied mathematically and its winning conditions are fully characterised, though it remains a curiosity rather than the standard game.
Different Board Sizes
The standard board is 11x11, but Hex is playable on any square rhombus grid. A 7x7 board suits beginners and younger players, producing faster games with more visible tactics. A 13x13 or 19x19 board produces much longer, more complex games. The core rules are identical regardless of size; only the depth and length of play change.
Hex with Blocking Pieces
Some informal versions introduce a small number of neutral blocking pieces placed on the board before play begins, agreed by both players or chosen randomly. These cells are permanently occupied and cannot be claimed. This variation adds an opening puzzle element and alters standard opening theory, though it is not a widely standardised format.
Hex: frequently asked questions
Can the game end in a draw?
No. A draw is mathematically impossible in Hex. Because the board is finite and every cell must eventually be filled, and because the topology of the board guarantees that a complete filling always leaves exactly one player with a connected path, one player must win every game.
Does the first player always win if they play perfectly?
Yes, by a strategy-stealing argument: if the second player had a winning strategy, the first player could steal it, which leads to a contradiction. However, the actual winning first moves are not fully mapped for the standard 11x11 board, so in practice both players have genuine decisions to make. The swap rule is used to balance this theoretical advantage.
What happens if a player places a piece on an already occupied cell?
That move is illegal. The piece must be placed on an empty cell. The player should simply choose a different empty cell before completing the turn. No penalty applies in casual play, but in competitive settings an illegal move may result in a forfeit under local rules.
Do corner cells belong to one player or both?
Corner cells are adjacent to two sides simultaneously. Either player may place on any corner, and a piece placed there can serve as part of whichever player's chain needs it. No cell belongs exclusively to one player until a piece is placed on it.
How long does a game of Hex normally take?
On an 11x11 board between players of similar experience, most games last 15 to 30 minutes. Beginners playing slowly or players on larger boards may take considerably longer. Games can also end quickly if one player spots a forced win early.
Is Hex suitable for children?
The rules are simple enough for children of around 8 and upwards to understand quickly. Younger children can play on a smaller board such as 7x7. The strategic depth grows with the player, so the game remains interesting as children develop.
Can more than two people play Hex?
No. Hex is strictly a two-player game. The board has exactly two pairs of opposite sides, one assigned to each player, and the structure of play depends on this direct opposition. There is no standard multi-player variant.
Does the chain have to run in a particular direction or follow a set path?
No. The winning chain may twist, branch, and change direction freely across the board. All that matters is that every piece in the chain shares an edge with the next, forming one continuous connected path from one of the player's sides to the other. The shape of the path is irrelevant.