Hex is the subject of books by Martin Gardner and Cameron Browne. Hex theory touches on graph theory, game theory and combinatorial game theory, with elegant proofs that the game has no draws and that the first player can win. From machines built by Claude Shannon to agents using Monte Carlo Tree Search, Hex is often used in the study of artificial intelligence. Written for a wide audience, this is the full story of Hex, inside and out, with all its twists and turns: Hein’s creation, Lindhard’s puzzles, Nash’s proofs, Gale’s Bridg-it, the game of Rex, Shannon’s machines, Bridg-it’s fall, Hex’s resilience, Hex theory, the hunt for winning strategies, and the rise of Hexbots.

Hex Strategy is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at the game of Hex, from its history and mathematical underpinnings to discussions of advanced playing techniques. This is first and foremost a book on strategy aimed at providing sufficient knowledge to play the game at any level desired. Numerous examples illustrate an algorithmic approach to the game. Hex Strategy is a book for board game enthusiasts, recreational mathematicians and programmers, or simply those who enjoy games and puzzles.

Combinatorial games are the strategy games that people like to play, for example chess, Hex, and Go. They differ from economic games in that there are two players who play alternately with no hidden cards and no dice. These games have a mathematical structure that allows players to analyse them in the abstract. Games of No Chance 4 contains the first comprehensive explorations of misère (last player to move loses) games, extends the theory for some classes of normal-play (last player to move wins) games and extends the analysis for some specific games. It includes a tutorial for the very successful approach to analysing misère impartial games and the first attempt at using it for misère partisan games. Hex and Go are featured, as well as new games: Toppling Dominoes and Maze. Updated versions of Unsolved Problems in Combinatorial Game Theory and the Combinatorial Games Bibliography complete the volume.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computers and Games, CG 2013, held in Yokohama, Japan, in August 2013, in conjunction with the 17th Computer and Games Tournament and the 20th World Computer-Chess Championship. The 21 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. They cover a wide range of topics which are grouped into five classes: Monte Carlo Tree Search and its enhancements; solving and searching; analysis of game characteristic; new approaches; and serious games.

A comprehensive study of the connection game genre, Connection Games provides a survey of known connection games while exploring common themes and strategies. This book aims to impose some structure on this increasingly large family of games, and to define exactly what constitutes a connection game. Key games are examined in detail and complete rul