PENTE 

Copyright (c) Gary Gabrel 1978

In 1978, Gary Gabrel simplified the rules of Ninuki-renju, a variant of Go-Moku, while retaining the complexity. He called the resulting game of strategy Pente. He copyrighted the rules, replaced the Go board with a decorated vinyl mat, rolled it up and put it in a mailing tube adorned with the game's name, and started selling it. The game became very popular, and there were a number of world championship tournaments in the late '70s and early '80s. After the 1983 world championship tournament in Boston, Gabrel sold the rights to the game to Parker Brothers. Fast forward 20 years to 1998. It turns out that the early 1980s was Pente's peak. It appears that Parker Brothers never made much of a push to market the game, and the game is now licensed to a company called Decipher. pente.org

The game starts at an empty Go board.

  • MOVE - Players alternate moves (Black first). A player captures a pair of stones any time he sandwiches the stones between a pair of his stones.
  • BALANCE - Black first move goes to K10 (Tengen - the center of the Go board), and his next move *not* be within 2 spaces of the piece at K10.
  • GOAL - Make a row of 5 connected stones (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) or capture 5 pairs of enemy stones.
 
An example

White may capture stones at [1]. Black may capture stones at [2].

To read some more about Pente, check the Renju pages or MindSports Arena. To find more (old) links go to Brien Croteau's Pente page.

KERYO-PENTE

The game starts at an empty Go board.

  • MOVE - Players alternate moves (Black first). A player captures a pair or a trio of stones any time he sandwiches the stones between a pair of his stones.
  • BALANCE - Black first move goes to K10 (Tengen - the center of the Go board), and his next move *not* be within 2 spaces of the piece at K10.
  • GOAL - Make a row of 5 connected stones (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) or capture 15 stones.

An example

White may capture stones at [1] and [3]. Black may capture stones at [2].

In the multiplayer version of Pente and Keryo-Pente, each player may sandwich any pair (or trio) of enemy stones. They do not need to be of the same opponent.

LINEAR-PENTE

This variant made by Mark Thompson is played on a linear 1D board with 19 cells:

 
  • MOVE - On each turn, each player drops a stone of his color in an empty cell.
    • Two enemy stones may then be captured if they are between the played stone and another friendly Stone. All four of these Stones must be of equal distance apart, one, two, three or four cells. Multiples of such captures are permitted.
  • GOAL - The player who creates a pattern of five friendly Stones of equal distance apart, one, two, three or four cells, wins the game.
 
An example

If White plays on the green dot, he will capture all four black stones.

There is a ZRF to play Linear Pente with Zillions.