board. Each player's goal is to form a connected path of their own stones linking their two board edges. The player who complete such a connection wins the game. To compensate for the first player's advantage, the swap rule is normally used. This rule allows the second player to choose whether to switch positions with the first player after the first player makes the first move. When it is clear to both players who will win the game, it is customary, but not required, for the losing player to resign. In practice, most games of Hex end with one of the players resigning. History Invention The game was invented by the Danish mathematician Piet Hein, who introduced it in 1942 at the Niels Bohr Institute. Although Hein later renamed it to Con-tac-tix, it became known in Denmark under the name Polygon due to an article by Hein in the 26 December 1942 edition of the Danish newspaper Politiken, the first published description of the game, in which he used that name. Nash's claim The game was rediscovered in 1948 or 1949 by the mathematician John Nash at Princeton University. According to Martin Gardner, who featured Hex in his July 1957 Mathematical Games column, Nash's fellow players called the game either Nash or John, with the latter name referring to the fact that the game could be played on hexagonal bathroom tiles. Nash insisted that he discovered the game independently of Hein, but there is some doubt about this, as it is known that there were Danish people, including Aage Bohr, who played Hex at Princeton in the 1940s, so that Nash may have subconsciously picked up the idea. Hein wrote to Gardner in 1957 expressing doubt that Nash discovered Hex independently. Gardner was unable to independently verify or refute Nash's claim. Gardner privately wrote to Hein: "I discussed it with the editor, and we decided that the charitable thing to do was to give Nash the benefit of the doubt. ... The fact that you invented the game before anyone else is undisputed. Any number of people can come along later and say that they thought of the same thing at some later date, but this means little and nobody really cares." In a later letter to Hein, Gardner added: "Just between you and me, and off the record, I think you hit the nail on the head when you