The table below lists the status of all opening moves for unrestricted Hex on board sizes up to 6x6. In unrestricted Hex, there is no swap option. By convention, Vertical is blue and goes first, while Horizontal is red and goes second. The cells are colour coded to indicate which player wins the game with perfect play.

    The numbers in the cells refer to the length of the perfect game, following each particular opening move, that ends in checkmate. That is, the remaining number of moves in the game, excluding the move in question itself. See the FAQ below for more information on exactly what "checkmate" means in this context.

1x1:	2x2:	3x3:		4x4:
5x5:			6x6 (now containing 2824 diagrams):

    The numbers in boldface are clickable. Clicking on a number brings you to a new diagram, showing the status of all the countermoves following the move you clicked on. This way you can navigate through the various opening lines.

There is a FAQ that answers the following questions:

1. What do the numbers and colours mean?
2. I can't see the colours. I get gray instead. What do I do?
3. I still can't get the colours. Now what do I do?
4. Perfect play? What is perfect play?
5. What exactly does "checkmate" mean?
6. How come there are zeroes in the diagram for 2x2 and 3x3 Hex? Surely the game takes more than zero moves?
7. Why do the numbers refer to the game length following each move? Why not simply the total game length?
8. What use is this information? I am used to playing on Playsite, where we use swap and the board is slanted the other way.
9. But how does information tell me what to do when I have to play the first move, and we are playing with swap?
10. You claim that higher numbers correspond to more difficult lines. What do you base this claim on?
11. What use is this information anyway? Nobody plays on board sizes this small.
12. I am interested in the diagram for opening variation X. Can Queenbee calculate it please?

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