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Hex Strategy and Tips

Here is how to think about winning at Hex, split into short lessons. Each one reads on its own, and each one comes with a real position: press Try it on the board and you play the move yourself.

Why the first player wins (strategy stealing)

Lesson 1

Hex is a win for the first player with perfect play. The proof is the strategy-stealing argument, usually credited to John Nash around 1949, and it rests on one fact: Hex can never end in a draw. Once the board is full, exactly one player has joined their two edges.

Suppose the second player had a winning strategy. The first player could then play any first move and afterwards copy that strategy as if they were the second player. The extra stone never hurts, and if the strategy ever calls for the space it already occupies, they simply play somewhere else. The first player would then win as well — a contradiction. So the winning strategy belongs to the first player.

The proof does not tell you what that strategy is. Computers have completely solved boards up to 9×9 and the centre opening on 10×10, but no winning line is known for the 11×11 board used here by default. The swap (pie) rule exists to cancel the first player's edge, and you can switch it on in the settings.

Bridge to the edge

Lesson 2

A bridge is two stones one step apart on a diagonal. They share two empty neighbours, so if your opponent takes one, you take the other and stay connected. The stones are not touching yet, but you can treat them as joined — which lets you advance two rows with a single move.

The edge can be one end of a bridge too. From a stone on the third row, counting the edge row as the first, you can bridge straight onto a space in the edge row. As long as one of the two gaps survives, that stone reaches your red edge.

Here blue has two stones in the edge row just beyond the end of your chain. Step forward one space and blue blocks the edge row next move — a dead end. Bridge onto the edge row instead and one of the two gaps is bound to connect. Bridging two rows at a time is faster than stepping one row at a time, and it cannot be cut.

The second row is already connected

Lesson 3

A stone on the second row — one row in from the edge row — is as good as connected to that edge. It touches two spaces in the edge row, so if your opponent blocks one, you place on the other and reach the edge. Think of it as a bridge whose far end is the edge itself.

So when you near an edge you do not need to play all the way to the edge row; reaching the second row is enough. Combine it with a bridge and a stone on the fourth row can bridge to the second row, settling the whole way to the edge. There are then two pairs of gaps to defend, but your opponent can only enter one of them per move.

Here your chain has reached the fourth row. Bridge to the highlighted space on the second row, and whether blue enters the bridge or the edge row, you answer on the other side and reach your red edge. Keep answering opposite whatever blue does.

Win a ladder with an escape stone

Lesson 4

When you push along the second row towards your edge and your opponent keeps blocking in the edge row, the shape is called a ladder. Each new second-row stone threatens to reach the edge, and each time the next edge space is blocked, so you crawl sideways along the same row.

If there is nothing of yours where the ladder is heading, it runs into the corner and dies. If one of your stones sits near the edge ahead — a ladder escape — the ladder connects as soon as it gets there. Before you start a ladder, check which direction leads to an escape stone.

Here your chain has reached the second row and blue has blocked two spaces in the edge row. Push towards the empty side and you stop at the corner; push towards your red stone in the edge row and you arrive in two moves. While blue is busy answering the ladder, they have no time to play anywhere else.

Try it on the board

Pick a lesson and the board starts from that position. Start over as often as you like.

Now put it to work

Play with friendsLearn how to play (3 min)

Last updated 2026-09-19 · Run by Qdan, Inc.