Thad, I appreciate your thoughtful input. But I must take issue with something you said.

********* "I like the concept of playing a simple game with so few rules. All the rules are basic & straightforward. None of them apply only to one player. There are no restrictions. It’s not convoluted in any way. In a word, I believe I would say one of the things I like best about fun-pente is that it’s elegant. It’s so simple to understand, yet it can be very complex and challenging.

‘Official’ pente is not that way. It has the move restriction. Yes, the game is more challenging, but the elegance of the rules is gone." ******

please don't get upset with me, but to me, this just seems like you are really stretching to give a reason here.

I can't see how the opening restriction can be considered anything but simple. The restriction IS basic and straightforward. How can you say the restriction is "convoluted?" I just don't agree with that, and I don't see how anyone who has played at least one game with the restriction would find it at all confusing. You say you like fun pente because it is elegant and that pente is not elegant. How is pente not elegant? A simple move restriction in NO way diminishes the elegance of the game; also, I have never known elegant to be synomous with simple.