History

This game was invented by Charles Titus and Craige Schensted. It is a connection game inspired by Hex, but here the goal is to connect the three edges.

Material

A triangular board with eleven hexagons on each side, 30 white pieces and 30 black pieces.

Definitions

Adjacency — Two pieces are said to be adjacent if the hexagons they occupy share an edge.

Group — a set of adjacent pieces of the same color.

Y — a group connecting the three edges.

Rules

The two players alternate placing a piece of their color on a free hexagon on the board.

After the first move, the second player has the option to switch colors (i.e., he becomes the first player, and the opponent immediately plays as second).

Objectives

Whoever manages to build a Y of their color wins.

Notes

The following diagram shows a Y:

Each corner belongs to two banks, and can be used to form a Y. The following group is also a Y:

The following example illustrates an endgame in which Black has a decisive advantage, regardless of whether it is his turn to move or not. Any attack by White can be neutralized. For example, if White plays d2, Black responds with e2, transforming his virtual connection into an effective one.

The main strategy, as is often the case in connection games, is to maximize the number of possible connections while preventing your opponent from doing the same. Everything that was said about Hex also applies to Y.

Variants

A very interesting variation consists of applying the modifier progressive to Y. So, the first player makes an initial move, then the second makes two consecutive moves, the first now makes three, and so on... There is, however, a restriction, so that the game does not become trivial: no one can, in the same move, place two pieces adjacent to the same group!

The following diagram shows the first four moves in a progressive Y game. Black played first. On the second move, White placed four pieces. The pieces h2 and j4 create a double connecting threat with h4. Black cannot oppose both of them in the same move (i.e., by playing h3 and i4) because these pieces would belong to the same group.

Another, slower variant, is characterized by each move consisting of placing two pieces (except for the first move, when the first player places only one piece). The same restriction applies here as well (the pieces played cannot belong to the same group). The following diagram shows the initial moves of a game with these rules:

After Black's fourth move his positional advantage is already apparent.

References