Tessera
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Hex

Join your two sides of the board with an unbroken chain. No captures, and no draws — ever.

11×11 · connect your two sides · play a person instead

A1, emptyB1, emptyC1, emptyD1, emptyE1, emptyF1, emptyG1, emptyH1, emptyI1, emptyJ1, emptyK1, emptyA2, emptyB2, emptyC2, emptyD2, emptyE2, emptyF2, emptyG2, emptyH2, emptyI2, emptyJ2, emptyK2, emptyA3, emptyB3, emptyC3, emptyD3, emptyE3, emptyF3, emptyG3, emptyH3, emptyI3, emptyJ3, emptyK3, emptyA4, emptyB4, emptyC4, emptyD4, emptyE4, emptyF4, emptyG4, emptyH4, emptyI4, emptyJ4, emptyK4, emptyA5, emptyB5, emptyC5, emptyD5, emptyE5, emptyF5, emptyG5, emptyH5, emptyI5, emptyJ5, emptyK5, emptyA6, emptyB6, emptyC6, emptyD6, emptyE6, emptyF6, emptyG6, emptyH6, emptyI6, emptyJ6, emptyK6, emptyA7, emptyB7, emptyC7, emptyD7, emptyE7, emptyF7, emptyG7, emptyH7, emptyI7, emptyJ7, emptyK7, emptyA8, emptyB8, emptyC8, emptyD8, emptyE8, emptyF8, emptyG8, emptyH8, emptyI8, emptyJ8, emptyK8, emptyA9, emptyB9, emptyC9, emptyD9, emptyE9, emptyF9, emptyG9, emptyH9, emptyI9, emptyJ9, emptyK9, emptyA10, emptyB10, emptyC10, emptyD10, emptyE10, emptyF10, emptyG10, emptyH10, emptyI10, emptyJ10, emptyK10, emptyA11, emptyB11, emptyC11, emptyD11, emptyE11, emptyF11, emptyG11, emptyH11, emptyI11, emptyJ11, emptyK11, empty

Your move

Opponent
Level

Master is part of Tessera Pro.

You play

Moves

No stones played yet.

How to play Hex

  1. Players take turns placing one stone on any empty hexagon. Stones are never moved or captured.
  2. Red wins by joining the top edge to the bottom edge with an unbroken chain of red hexagons.
  3. Blue wins by joining the left edge to the right edge.
  4. The four corner hexagons belong to both edges that meet there.
  5. The game cannot be drawn: when the board is full, exactly one player is connected.

Invented twice: by Piet Hein in Denmark in 1942 and, independently, by John Nash at Princeton in 1948, where it was played on the bathroom floor tiles and known as Nash. Martin Gardner introduced it to the world in 1957. Nash proved with a strategy-stealing argument that the first player must win with perfect play — without anybody, then or since, knowing what that play is on a full-size board.

How to get better

Learn the bridge

Two of your stones a knight's-move apart, with two empty hexagons between them, are already connected — if the opponent takes one gap you take the other. Bridges are how you cross a board quickly and safely.

Attack and defence are the same move

Because there are no draws, every hexagon that helps you connect also blocks your opponent. If you cannot decide, ask which square does both.

Play the short diagonal

The centre and the diagonal between your own two edges are worth more than they look. Stones far off it usually help your opponent more than you.

Count the ladder before you start it

Pushing a chain along the board is only worth it if it arrives somewhere. Work out where the ladder ends before you commit to it.

Can a game of Hex end in a draw?

No — and that is a theorem, not a convention. Filling every hexagon necessarily creates a winning chain for exactly one player, which is equivalent to the Brouwer fixed-point theorem.

Does the first player always win?

In theory, yes: Nash's strategy-stealing argument proves it. In practice nobody knows the winning strategy on an 11×11 board, which is why the game is still worth playing.

What is a bridge?

Two stones with two empty hexagons connecting them. It behaves as a solid link, because whichever gap your opponent takes, you take the other one.

The other games

Connect 4

Drop a disc, claim a column, line up four before they do.

Gomoku

Five in a row on a 15×15 grid. Simple to learn, ruthless to master.

Connect6

Six in a row, two stones a turn — the fair, modern cousin of Gomoku.

Pente

Five in a row — or take five pairs off the board and win that way.

Dots & Boxes

Draw a line, close a box, go again. Everything is decided in the endgame.