Puzzles
Solving puzzles is a very good way of becoming a stronger player. Solve as many as possible! And feel free to post your own puzzles here.
Contents
Piet Hein's puzzles
See article Piet Hein's puzzles
Claude Berge's puzzles
See article Claude Berge's puzzles
Bert Enderton
Puzzle 1
Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 2
Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 3
Red to play and win.
This is a very difficult puzzle whose complete solution is extremely complex.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 4
Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Eric Demer
Despite their small size, the following five 5x5 puzzles are quite difficult: They come from computer brute-force search of sparse 5x5 positions via a tablebase, specifically aiming for the hardest puzzles from such positions. For each of them, the player whose turn it is has exactly 1 winning move.
Puzzle 1
Red to move.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 2
Blue to move.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 3
Blue to move.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 4
Red to move.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 5
Red to move.
Try it on HexWorld.
The next two puzzles are based on positions from games.
Puzzle 6
Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 7
Blue to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Other
Eric Demer also has a worst-move puzzle.
Other authors
Puzzle 1
By John Tromp. Blue to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 2
By lazyplayer. Blue to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Puzzle 3
By David J Bush. Taken from a game on Playsite in 2003. Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Source: this Little Golem forum thread.
Puzzle 4
Designed by Door1, helped by David J Bush. Inspired by a game on Kurnik in May 2005. Blue to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Source: this Little Golem forum thread.
Puzzle 5
By Ryan B. Hayward. Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
Note that this position is equivalent to the position with the pieces at a5 and a6 removed. This could arise in response to the winning opening move a4.
Source: Ryan B. Hayward, "A puzzling Hex primer" (https://webdocs.cs.ualberta.ca/~hayward/papers/puzzlingHexPrimer.pdf).
Puzzle 6
By Hexanna. Red to play and win.
Try it on HexWorld.
See also
Cameron Browne offers a lot of original puzzles in his book Hex Strategy Making the Right Connections
Matthew Seymour has created a website with 500 interactive Hex puzzles at http://www.mseymour.ca/hex_puzzle/hexpuzzle.html
Ryan Hayward and Bjarne Toft include several sets of puzzles in their book Hex: The Full Story, including 49 puzzles originally published in Politiken, 28 unpublished puzzles by Jens Lindhard, 99 puzzles by Henderson, and the 4 puzzles by Bert Enderton.
