Hex for iPad vs Chess Endgames

Hex is a strategy board game played on a hexagonal grid, theoretically of any size and several possible shapes, but traditionally as an 11×11 rhombus. Other popular dimensions are 13×13 and 19×19 as a result of the game's relationship to the older game of Go. According to the book A Beautiful Mind, John Nash (one of the game's inventors) advocated 14×14 as the optimal size. History The game was invented by the Danish mathematician Piet Hein, who introduced it in 1942 at the Niels Bohr Institute. It was independently re-invented in 1947 by the mathematician John Nash at Princeton University. Hex is an abstract strategy game that belongs to the general category of "connection" games. Rules Each player has an allocated color, Red and Blue being conventional. Players take turns placing a stone of their color on a single cell within the overall playing board. The goal is to form a connected path of your stones linking the opposing sides of the board marked by your color, before your opponent connects his or her sides in a similar fashion. The first player to complete his or her connection wins the game. The four corner hexagons each belong to both adjacent sides. The turn of each player is shown by a red or blue disc on a side of the board game. The player must touch a cell to fill it with his own color. After that, he can cancel his last move using the 'Undo' button, and redo a different move. When the move is done, the turn comes of the opponent player. John Nash proved in 1952 that a game of Hex cannot end in a tie, and that for a symmetric board there exists a winning strategy for the player who makes the first move (by the strategy-stealing argument). However, the argument is non-constructive: it only shows the existence of a winning strategy, without describing it explicitly. Finding an explicit strategy has been the main subject of research since then.

Endgames decide games, and almost nobody trains them. ChessEndings turns endgame theory into muscle memory: instead of watching lessons, you play each ending out against a built-in Stockfish tuned for maximum practical resistance. It never gives up the way raw engine lines do, so you have to find the real winning technique. The basic checkmates, from the start - King and queen mate, and the stalemate trap that ruins it - King and rook mate with the box method - Ladder mate with two rooks - Mate with the two bishops - Bishop and knight mate, the one everyone fumbles The endgame families - King and pawn: opposition, triangulation, the rule of the square, key squares - Rook endings: the Lucena position, the Philidor position, the Vancura defense - Bishop vs knight, opposite-colored bishops, queen vs rook - Passed pawns, zugzwang, back-rank mate, the 50-move rule Why it sticks - Every mistake explained: when you slip, the coach shows you what went wrong and the idea behind the right move. - No memorizing squares: revisit a position and the board is transformed, so you learn the technique, not the pattern. - A defender that varies: in a lost position with several equally good defenses, it rotates between them and never picks a weaker one, so you train the whole ending and not a single line. - Rated Gym: endless drills matched to your level, every position checked against the endgame tablebase. - Journeys: guided paths from the basic mates up to the hard rook endings. - Scan your own games: we find the won endgames you let slip, and the exact move. - Play as a guest: no account needed to start. Premium A one-time lifetime purchase unlocks unlimited daily drills, every family and journey, and endless rated Gym sessions. It is not a subscription: nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel. Whether you are learning your first king and queen mate or sharpening a rook-endgame technique you always misplay, ChessEndings makes the theory stick by making you play it.