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Can intrusion into the center of a wheel ever be the unique winning move?

Public forum discussion.

#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.

#2 · Arek Kulczycki

17 Apr 2023

I had many positions when the central intrusion was the best intrusion (btw, I used "nozoki" term for it, but actually maybe just english "intrusion" should be the standard). It's another story if it's "the only winning move", obviously this I don't know in my typical game. However, given it is sometimes the best intrusion I suppose it's a matter of smart arrangement.