#1 · hexanna
17 Apr 2023
I posted this in a talk page over at HexWiki but figured some people here might find this an interesting challenge.
Basically, the wheel template has three outside points in its carrier, labeled A in the wiki, and one inside point labeled B. Is there a position where Red/Black has a wheel, and Blue/White wins if she plays at B in the wheel but loses if she plays at any of A? It turns out this is not so hard to construct, and I provided an example on a 5x5 board on the talk page.
The harder (and unsolved AFAIK) question is to construct a position where the intrusion at B is the unique winning move. I provide an example based on a position lazyplayer sent me (and lots of experimentation) where KataHex thinks the central wheel intrusion at f10 is >90% to win for Black, and all other moves are % to win. But, this isn't a mathematical proof, and indeed it's hard to prove stuff on a board as large as 13x13. So I challenge those who are interested to try to find a minimal example, or at least an example small enough that one can prove that intruding at B is the unique winning move.