Hex isn't the oldest board game to use hexagonal tiling – that would probably be AGON (learn more here; buy your own set here), but certainly has the best pedigree. Hex was invented independently by two of the most fascinating figures in Twentieth Century mathematics: Piet Hein (scientist, mathematician, poet and God knows what else) in 1942 and John Nash (played by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind) in 1947.

Hex has probably inspired more study than any other game of the past one hundred year (learn more here) but the game itself couldn't be much simpler. Here are the rules:

Play: Players take turns marking Xs or Os (or placing tokens) on different hexagons.

Objective: X is trying to form a continuous chain of Xs from the top of the board to the bottom while O is trying to make a chain from left to right.

Here's what a win for O might look like.