Vellore Institute of Technology

Graph Theory: MAT206

Slot: C2+TC2

Applications of Graph Theory in

Board Games

By:
12BCE0033
Abhinav Prasad

Supervisor:
Prof. Madhu Sudhan
Reddy

April 22, 2015

Introduction

Board games have existed since the 1800s as a means of entertainment for the
masses. The Board games of old featured mind boggling challenges and puzzles
which would take hours for any man to solve. Modern Applications of Graph
Theory to board games help solve these games efficiently and provide optimal
strategies to win the game. In this text, we will look at one of the old board
games: Hex.

Hex

Hex is a simple to learn but difficult to solve board game invented by Piet Hien,
A Danish mathematician in 1942. It can be considered as a strategy board game
played on a hexagonal grid traditionally on a 11x11 rhombus.

2.1

Rules

Hex is played on a rhombus-shaped board consisting of hexagonal shaped spaces.

The goal of the two players, black (B) and white (W), are to form a chain
from one edge of the board to the opposite edge. Bs goal is to make a chain
of black pieces connecting B and B, and W wants to make a chain of white
pieces connecting W and W. Below is a picture of the empy game board:

To play the game, the black and white players alternate placing pieces in one of
the hexagonal cells. There are no restrictions as to where pieces can be played.
The first player to create a chain as described above wins. The game ends when
a player wins or when the board is filled.

2.2

Solution

A two player Hex game cannot end in a draw. This can be proved using Kuratowskis Theorem. The player who starts first has a nxn winning strategy.
However, the second player can covert the first players strategy into their own
by making an irrelevant move and following the first players strategy. Also,
placing a cell on the board will either benefit the player or prove useless, but
will never hurt the player.
We can assume the game board as a planar graph G with four corner vertices.
Let C be a cell with 6 vertices and 6 edges, and graph G consists of n number of
Cells entirely filling it. Thus, each cell C is a region of graph G. Each internal
cell is surrounded by 6 other cells, while the corner cells touch 3 cells.

In the above figure, Black has won the game. Thus, black has to make a path
out of Black cells to cross the game board and defeat white. Whites objective
would be to prevent Black from doing so, by obstructing his way and making
his own path. An optimal solution to the game can be formulated taking the
moves of both players into account and generating a solid winning strategy for
the player.

Conclusion

With an understanding of Graph Theory concepts, one can understand the

format of board games and approach these games appropriately. Hex, Sudoku,
Snakes and Ladders are examples of Board games which were based on graph
theory concepts which are played even today.