First, choose a player to be X and a player to be O. Decide which player will have the left and right sides and which will have the top and bottom sides. Players then take turns marking the hexes

with their letter. The winner is the first one to build a path with their letters from one of their sides to the other.

A (small) game of hex in progress. Before the game started, the players agreed thatPlayer O would have the left and right sides and that player X would have the top and bottom.

Board 1 (disc) (Recalling the definition of topological equivalence,can you see why this is a disc?)

Variation: Glue opposite sides together. (See game boards below and earlier games. ) The new object of the game is to make a path from one side to the other and then close the loop.

Board 2 (torus)

Board 3 (Projective plane)