No one sent in a correct solution to arrive at the 10-10 score in six moves in my puzzle(if someone did and I accidentally missed it, please let me know the approximate date and I'll check again), so here is the solution: 1.K12 K13 2.O10 K7 3.K6 N7 4.O7 N9 5.R11 Q12 or K16 6.O8. I think the solution(s) to win in 7 moves if black has one less stone captured should be obvious from here, so I'll leave them as an exercise for the reader.
Mark has modified his program to play poof pente and it plays VERY well, so soon anyone who wants to try it will be able to play against the computer. I am thinking about trying to get a poof pente discussion board set up somewhere, so that people can post strategy tips, puzzles, etc. I am also looking forward to the time when Mark has his AI modified so that we can try out different variants on the theme of poof pente (and others also) to see what seems to be the fairest game (Gary's suggestion of playing into poofs being forbidden, only P2 can make poofs,etc.) Tom