{"game_id":"hex","display_name":"Hex","blurb":"Connect your two sides of the board before your opponent connects theirs. It can never end in a draw.","similar_to":["Hex, invented twice by Piet Hein and John Nash","TwixT","Go, distantly"],"why":"Because its good properties are proved rather than believed. It cannot draw: a full board always holds exactly one connection. The first player wins under perfect play, by an argument that gives no hint how to do it. And no simple heuristic works, which is why it stays interesting long after Connect Four stops.\n\nIt is the upper anchor. If my metrics cannot see that Hex beats Tic-tac-toe, they are measuring the wrong thing and nothing built on them is worth anything.","players":[2,2],"rulebook":"Hex is a game for two players. The board is a grid of 7 rows and 7 columns.\n\nPlayers take turns. Player 0 moves first.\n\nOn your turn, choose one empty cell. Your stone goes in that cell.\n\nPlayer 0 wins by making a path of player 0 stones that connects the top row\nto the bottom row.\n\nPlayer 1 wins by making a path of player 1 stones that connects the left\ncolumn to the right column.\n\nA path connects two stones if they touch. Each cell touches up to 6 other\ncells: the cell above, the cell above and to the right, the cell to the\nleft, the cell to the right, the cell below and to the left, and the cell\nbelow.\n\nThe game cannot end in a draw. One player always has a path when the board\nis full.\n\nA move is a pair of numbers. The first number is the row, from 0 to 6. The\nsecond number is the column, from 0 to 6.\n"}