Small boards

Playing Hex on boards of size smaller than 10 &times; 10 is not very interesting, since many players will be able to play almost perfectly. However it may still be intersting for theoretical studies, and for making problems.

The boards of size up to five can be solved by hand. Hex on 6 &times; 6 has been solved by Queenbee.

Here are the winning first moves on the small boards. Red is vertical and plays first. The cells containing a red stone are winning moves for red, while those containing a blue stone are losing. For more details, visit Queenbee's own opening page at http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~queenbee/openings.html

Update: The 7 &times; 7 board has been solved by R. Hayward, et.al. For more details, visit http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~hayward/hex7trees/

R2 C2 Vb1 Va2 Ha1 Hb2

R3 C3 Va2 Va3 Hb1 Vb2 Hb3 Vc1 Vc2 Ha1 Hc3

R4 C4 Va4 Vb3 Vc2 Vd1 Ha1 Ha2 Ha3 Hb1 Hb2 Hb4 Hc1 Hc3 Hc4 Hd2 Hd3 Hd4

R5 C5 Ve1 Vb2 Vc2 Vd2 Ve2 Vb3 Vc3 Vd3 Va4 Vb4 Vc4 Vd4 Va5 Ha1 Ha2 Ha3 Hb1 Hc1 Hd1 Hb5 Hc5 Hd5 He5 He4 He3

R6 C6 Ve1 Vb2 Vc2 Vd2 Ve2 Vb3 Vc3 Vd3 Va4 Vb4 Vc4 Vd4 Va5 Ha1 Ha2 Va3 Hb1 Hc1 Hd1 He1 Vb5 Vc5 Vd5 Ve5 Ve4 Ve3 Vf1 Vf2 Vf3 Vf4 Hf5 Hf6 He6 Hd6 Hc6 Hb6 Va6

R7 C7 Q1 Ha1 Hb1 Hc1 Hd1 He1 Hf1 Vg1 Ha2 Hb2 Vc2 Hd2 Ve2 Vf2 Vg2 Ha3 Vb3 Vc3 Vd3 Ve3 Vf3 Hg3 Va4 Vb4 Vc4 Vd4 Ve4 Vf4 Vg4 Ha5 Vb5 Vc5 Vd5 Ve5 Vf5 Hg5 Va6 Vb6 Vc6 Hd6 Ve6 Hf6 Hg6 Va7 Hb7 Hc7 Hd7 He7 Hf7 Hg7