History Hex was first invented in 1942 by Danish mathematician Piet Hein, and was originally called Polygon. The same game was independently developed in 1948 by Nobel laureate John Nash, then a graduate student of mathematics at Princeton University. Hex has always had a dedicated following amongst the mathematical community, and has been the subject of many worthwhile research papers. Hex is currently enjoying another resurgence of interest and is becoming a popular game amongst the internet gaming community. One player must win.
First player has a winning line.
The first point is related to the fact that Hex is a generalization of the Shannon Switching Game. At the completion of a game only one of these states can exist. The second point derives from the first, and is based upon a strategy stealing argument proposed by Nash. Essentially, if a winning strategy exists for the second player, then the first player can win the game by stealing this strategy given that he has the advantage of an extra move. The huge first move advantage is a flaw in the game that players have attempted to address with a number of superficial fixes.