Havannah is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Christian Freeling. It belongs to the family of games commonly called connection games; its relatives include Hex and TwixT. Havannah has "a sophisticated and varied strategy" and is best played on a base-10 hexagonal board, 10 hex cells to a side. The game was published for a period in Germany by Ravensburger, with a smaller, base-8 board suitable for beginners. It is nowadays only produced by Hexboards. Game rules One player plays as black; the other plays as white. White starts, after which moves alternate. The rules are as follows: Each player places one stone of their color on the board per turn. Stones are never moved, captured, or otherwise changed. A player wins when they complete one of three different structures from unbroken lines, or paths, of connected stones, all of their colour: A ring is a loop around one or more cells (no matter whether the encircled cells are occupied by any player or empty); A bridge, which connects any two of the six corner cells of the board; A fork, which connects any three edges of the board; corner points are not considered parts of an edge. An example of all three winning combinations is shown above. The structure in the centre of the board is a ring; the structure on the left-hand side is a fork; the structure on the right-hand side is a bridge. Since the first player to move in Havannah has a distinct advantage, the pie rule is generally implemented for fairness. This rule allows the second player to choose whether to switch positions with the first player after the first player makes the first move. Players of different strength can still play an interesting game when the weaker player (as white) is allowed to place two or more stones on the first turn. Difference compared to Hex In Hex, when the board is completely filled, exactly one player will have a winning connection; in Havannah a completely filled board will have usually more than one winning structures (but the game ends with first winning structure). Unlike in Hex, in Havannah draws are technically possible, in practice they are extremely rare. There has been one known draw between human players. Tactics are much easier to master than strategy, and differences in playing level are considerable. Computer Havannah In 2002 Freeling offered a prize