Try playing the game of Hex, and connect your sides of the board before your opponent cuts you off!
In Hex, you have to try and link two opposite sides of the board with your hexagons. Your opponent is trying to link the other two sides with their hexagons.
If you like playing Hex, you could print a large hex board on A3 sized paper or draw a big copy of the board onto a sheet of cardboard. Then you can use counters instead of drawing on the board, and you can re-use it over and over.
Hex was invented by a mathematician named Piet Hein in 1942, and several years later, it was re-invented by another mathematician, John Nash. Both mathematicians were interested in using maths to study games. John Nash eventually won a Nobel Prize in Economics for his research into different games.
Many different mathematicians have proved the game can’t end in a draw – if the board fills up so that no one can play another piece, then one player must have won. John Nash used this fact to show that a perfect first player would always win, even against a perfect second player. However, John’s proof doesn’t actually tell you what the perfect strategy is.
Since the first player has an advantage, many Hex players start the game with a special first turn – the first player plays their first move, then the second player has the option to swap sides with the first player. If the start player plays a really good move then the second player will swap and have the advantage.
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23 August, 2018 at 5:14 am
Hi Guys – We have come up with the world’s first online multiplayer smartphone app for the game of HEX. It’s currently available on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adoopegames.hex
3 September, 2018 at 8:17 pm
HEX smartphone app now available for iOS as well: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hex-a-game-of-connections/id1432522251