Editing Hex (board game) (section)

==Variants==
Other connection games with similar objectives but different structures include [[Shannon switching game]] (also known as Gale and Bridg-It) and [[TwixT]]. Both of these bear some degree of similarity to the ancient Chinese game of [[Go (board game)|Go]].

===Rectangular grids and paper and pencil===
The game may be played on a rectangular grid like a chess, checker or go board, by considering that spaces (intersections in the case of go) are connected in one diagonal direction but not the other. The game may be played with paper and pencil on a rectangular array of dots or graph paper in the same way by using two different colored pencils.

=== Board sizes ===
Popular dimensions other than the standard 11×11 are 13×13 and 19×19 as a result of the game's relationship to the older game of [[Go (board game)|Go]].  According to the book ''[[A Beautiful Mind (book)|A Beautiful Mind]]'', [[John Forbes Nash Jr.|John Nash]] (one of the game's inventors) advocated 14×14 as the optimal size.

=== Rex (Reverse Hex) ===
The [[misère]] variant of Hex is called "Rex", in which each player tries to force their opponent to make a chain.  Rex is slower than Hex since, on any empty board with equal dimensions, the losing player can delay a loss until the entire board is full.<ref name="CRC Press">{{cite book |last1=Hayward |first1=Ryan B. |last2=Toft |first2=Bjarne |title=Hex, inside and out : the full story |year=2019 |publisher=CRC Press |location=Boca Raton, Florida |isbn=978-0367144258 |page=175}}</ref>  On boards with unequal dimensions, the player whose sides are further apart can win regardless of who plays first.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hayward |first1=Ryan B. |last2=Toft |first2=Bjarne |title=Hex, inside and out : the full story |year=2019 |publisher=CRC Press |location=Boca Raton, Florida |isbn=978-0367144258 |page=154}}</ref>   On boards with equal dimensions, the first player can win on a board with an even number of cells per side, and the second player can win on a board with an odd number.<ref>Gardner (1959) p.78</ref><ref>Browne (2000) p.310</ref>  On boards with an even number, one of the first player's winning moves is always to place a stone in the acute corner.<ref name="CRC Press"/>

===''Blockbusters''===
Hex had an incarnation as the question board from the television game show ''[[Blockbusters (U.S. game show)|Blockbusters]]''. In order to play a "move", contestants had to answer a question correctly. The board had 5 alternating columns of 4 hexagons; the solo player could connect top-to-bottom in 4 moves, while the team of two could connect left-to-right in 5 moves.

===Y===
{{Main article|Y (game)}}

The game of Y is Hex played on a triangular grid of hexagons; the object is for either player to connect all three sides of the triangle.  Y is a generalization of Hex to the extent that any position on a Hex board can be represented as an equivalent position on a larger Y board.

===Havannah===
{{Main article|Havannah (board game)}}

Havannah is a game based on Hex.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Freeling |first1=Christian |title=How I invented games and why not |url=https://www.mindsports.nl/index.php/how-i-invented-games-and-why-not/organicity?start=5 |website=MindSports |access-date=19 October 2020}}</ref> It too has a board space composed of hexagonal tiles, however the board is itself in the shape of a large hexagon, and a win is achieved by forming one of three patterns.

=== Projex ===
Projex is a variation of Hex played on a [[real projective plane]], where the players have the goal of creating a [[Contractible space|noncontractible]] loop.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31805/projex|title=Projex|website=BoardGameGeek|access-date=2018-02-28}}</ref> Like in Hex, there are no ties, and there is no position in which both players have a winning connection.

===Dark Hex===
Dark Hex (also known as Phantom Hex) is an imperfect information version of Hex.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tapkan |first1=M.Bedir |title=Dark Hex: A Large Scale Imperfect Information Game |date=2022 |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=mUiNYg8AAAAJ&citation_for_view=mUiNYg8AAAAJ:d1gkVwhDpl0C}}</ref> The players are not exposed to each other's stones at any point in the game unless they discover them first. The game is played in the presence of an umpire where each player first verifies the move if its a collision or not. Based on the continuation of this point the game has different versions.

<!-- 
    please don't add arbitrary gamer variants from private websites to the list; see talk page for qualifying criteria.  Additions must have a citation to a published source. -->