Tap a cell to begin
| Tap a cell | Claim it for your colour. |
| Connect your sides | Build an unbroken chain from one of your edges to the other. |
| Mode | Play the computer or a friend. |
Hex is played on a board of hexagons. You own two opposite sides, your opponent owns the other two, and you take turns filling cells. The winner is whoever first builds an unbroken chain of their own cells linking their two sides. That is the entire rulebook, and it produces one of the deepest abstract games ever designed.
Hex has a remarkable mathematical property: a draw is impossible. When the board is full, exactly one player must have a connected chain, which can be proved rigorously. It was invented independently by Piet Hein in 1942 and John Nash in 1948, and Nash also proved that the first player can always win with perfect play, without anyone knowing how.
Play the bridge. Two of your cells placed a knight's-move apart, with two empty cells between them, are effectively connected: if your opponent takes one gap, you take the other. Bridges let you claim ground much faster than filling cells one at a time.
Blocking and connecting are the same move. Because the board is finite and a draw is impossible, every cell you take to extend your chain also obstructs your opponent's. That duality is the central idea of Hex and it takes a while to feel natural.
Play toward the centre early. The middle of the board offers the most routes in both directions, whereas a chain hugging an edge is easy to cut off and has fewer ways to continue.
Look for the shortest remaining path. Toward the end, count how many cells each side still needs to complete their chain. Whoever needs fewer, and moves first, generally wins, so switching from attack to defence at the right moment is decisive.
No, and that is a proven mathematical fact. When the board fills, exactly one player must have a connected chain.
You connect the top and bottom edges; your opponent connects left and right.
Yes. John Nash proved the first player can always win with perfect play, although the winning strategy is not known for larger boards.
Two of your cells separated by two empty ones in a specific pattern. They cannot be cut apart, so they count as connected.
No. Hex runs entirely inside this page, so it starts the moment the page opens. There is nothing to download, no plugin, and no account to create.