What is Hexeh?
Hexeh is a fast and exciting board game. It was made by people who love chess, but it plays quicker and feels more like a battle. You need to think carefully and plan smart moves to win!
Game Setup
1. Board Orientation:
Place the Hexeh board so that each player has a point of the board facing toward them rather than a side of the board. This creates columns or straight lines of hexagons running between the two players. These columns are called “files”.
From the perspective of player 1, the file on the left side (containing four hexagons) is the a-file. From left to right, the files are a, b, c, d, e, f, and g. There are also numbers that pair with the letters to create coordinates. Each file starts with 1 (closest to the player 1), counting up. The a-file and g-file are the shortest, only going up to a4 and g4 respectively, and the d-file is the longest, going up to d7.
To orient the board correctly, ensure the c1 and e1 spaces are light-colored, while the c6 and e6 spaces are dark-colored. The person with the d1 space facing them is player 1 and the person with the d7 space facing them is player 2.
2. Piece Placement
From the perspective of player 1, the pieces should be placed as follows:
Player 2’s piece setup should be a mirror image of player 1’s.
The pieces are arranged symmetrically.
Piece Movement
Guards move one space in any direction, and can capture forward, forward-left, or forward-right. They cannot capture in backward directions.
Guard
Traveler
Travelers can move along color-paths (routes that consist of one single color) any number of spaces, and can move between other pieces as long as the color-path itself is unoccupied. Travelers are the only pieces that can move on color-paths. Travelers can also shift colors by moving one space away.
Prowlers move two spaces away in any direction either on a direct (e.g., c1 to c3, passing over c2) or curved path (e.g., c1 to d3, passing over either c2 or d2). The space they pass over must be vacant. They cannot move only one space away.
Prowler
Wizard
Wizards move side to side along diagonal paths. They cannot move up or down a file. During their movement, wizards can deflect off the a-file and g-file (called "walls") and continue their movement. For example, a wizard could start on d2 and end on e5, with a deflection off a2 during the movement. It’s rare, but wizards can deflect twice in a single movement, off both the a-file and g-file.
Empress
Empresses move one space at a time in any direction.
Note for capturing and movements:
Apart from the guard’s unique capturing style, all other pieces can capture on any space they can legally move to, and no piece is allowed to move “through” other pieces or “hop” over pieces.
Game Play
1. Player 1 begins by making the first move, then players alternate turns until the game is over.
2. Captures: A piece can capture by moving to a space occupied by an opponent’s piece, removing the opponent’s piece from the board.
3. A player wins the game by capturing the opponent's empress, the opponent resigning, or the opponent running out of time if using a game clock.
4. Promotions: If a guard reaches the opponent’s “throne” (d1 and d7 respectively) it can promote to any piece that was previously lost/captured. If the player wants to forego the promotion and just leave the piece as a guard, that’s legal.
5. A game can end in a draw by:
Mutual agreement
Insufficient material (e.g., empress vs. empress)
The 37-move rule (no captures or guard moves occur in the last 37 moves per side)
Either player offering a draw at any point in the game - in this specific case, the other player does not have to agree to the draw.
Note for draws: with the exception of insufficient material, all other types of draw must be claimed by a player by saying it out loud during an OTB game (over the board). If this doesn’t happen, the game can continue.
Additional Notes
Game clock: In timed games, if a player’s time runs out, they lose the game.
Notation: When notating a Hexeh game, the following characters are used along with the coordinates explained above.
Example:
The move “prowler takes d4” would be notated as “Pxd4”, and a guard being promoted to a wizard would be notated as “G=W”. If two of the same kind of piece can move to the same space (e.g., both player 1’s travelers can move to c3), an extra character is added, notating the starting file of the piece. For example, instead of “Tc3”, it would say “Tbc3”, showing that the traveler that moved to c3 was the one that was on the b-file before the move occurred. This is the default way of notating this type of situation. However, if both pieces in question happen to be on the same file before the move occurs, a number is added signifying the numbered space the piece was on before the movement. For example, instead of “Tc3”, it would say “T4c3”.
Misconceptions
1. An empress being attacked must react to that attack by either moving, blocking, or capturing - this is not true. Since the game can be won by capturing the opponent’s empress, the opponent does not have to notice or react to the threat. Furthermore, a player does not need to warn the opponent that their empress is under attack.
2. In the endgame, a draw occurs when the empress cannot escape being captured - this is not true. An empress can legally move to a space that is under attack.