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How to play Hex: rules and how to win

Hex is played by 2 players on a board with 11 × 11 hexagonal cells. White moves first. Connect your two opposite edges with an unbroken chain of stones.

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Play Hex

Quick answer

Hex is a two-player connection game on an 11×11 rhombus of hexagonal cells. Each player links a pair of opposite edges. Players take turns placing a stone on an empty cell; stones never move and are never captured. White links top and bottom, and Black left and right. The first unbroken chain wins, and a full Hex board can never end in a draw. This guide covers Hex. Check the movement, capture and game-ending rules below before applying rules from another variant.

Players
2
Board
11 × 11 hexagonal cells
First move
White moves first.

Ruleset and sources: Hex

Setup

Game illustration
Game illustration. Follow the setup instructions to prepare a new game.

Start on an empty 11×11 rhombus of hexagonal cells. White connects top to bottom; Black connects left to right.

Board
11 × 11 hexagonal cells
Players
2
First move
White moves first.
Rules used here
Hex

Moves and captures

  • Legal moves

    Place one stone in an empty hex. Stones are never moved or captured. Adjacent hexes share a side, giving each interior cell six neighbours.

  • Using the board

    Choose an empty hex. White joins top and bottom; Black joins left and right.

Special rules

  • ChessPlayX plays Hex without the swap (pie) rule: White always places the first stone, and Black cannot take it over.

  • Tournament Hex usually adds the swap rule to offset the first-move advantage.

Winning and draws

  • An unbroken chain between your goal edges wins immediately.

  • A completely filled standard Hex board cannot be a draw.

Example

Sources and rule verification

Ruleset covered
Hex
  1. HexWiki — Rules
  2. Hex — connection game

This guide describes play on ChessPlayX. Platform-specific conventions are stated in the relevant sections; tournament administration may differ.

A separate rule-review date is not recorded for this guide. The update date is not a verification date.