Skip to content
Solved Games

Connection games

All families · 3 solved · 3 open · 1 engines

Solved

Section titled “Solved”
Game Result under perfect play Strength Method Year Source
Hex (7×7) First player wins Weak Strategy-stealing 2003 Yang et al. 2003
Hex (9×9, all openings) First player wins Weak Depth-first PNS 2013 Pawlewicz et al. 2013
Y (side 6) First player wins Strong Retrograde analysis 2026 Liou 2026*

* Self-archived: the result is available only from its authors (a repository, a post, a deposit), not yet refereed, formally verified or reproduced by someone else. The mark comes off when one of those happens. It applies to this repo’s own results too.

Hex is also ultra-weakly solved for every board size: the first player wins by strategy stealing (Nash, 1952), with no explicit strategy. On 10×10 one opening (f5) was solved in 2013; the rest are tracked as an open problem below.

Open problems

Section titled “Open problems”
Problem Status Next target Latest result Last checked
Hex (10×10, remaining openings) Partially solved The current table of solved 10×10 opening cells from Hayward’s group Pawlewicz & Hayward 2013 (2013) 2026-10-17
Tak (4×4) Smaller board solved 4×4 Marrow 2025 (2025-09-06) 2026-10-17
Y (side 7) Smaller board solved Side 7 (28 cells), slice by slice Liou 2026 (2026-06-19)* 2026-10-17

Engines

Section titled “Engines”