On Optimal Play in the Game of Hex
Garikai Campbell · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2004
Hex is a two person game played on an n×n board in which the players take turns trying to construct paths from one side of the board to the other. It is known that there exists a winning strategy for the first player, but no one has yet been able to find such a strategy for any board larger than 9×9. Despite this, we ask the following two questions: “what is the shortest path with which player one can guarantee a win?” and “what is the minimal number of moves player one must make to guarantee a win?” We give lower bounds on answers to these questions and conclude with a number of conjectures and “challenges.”