Thanks for the response Dmitri.Yes it is indeed quite similar to standard pente. The way it originated was that our instructions with the pente board were unclear on the situation, and we thought we were playing pente according to the rules! It does take a bit to switch gears from standard to this variant (which I call pente with poofs) or vice versa,but it is quite possible. Just in case anyone thinks that the actual games or strategies are anything like standard pente I've made up a puzzle problem which I call David vs. Goliath which should amply show how different the two games end up being. Obviously, this exact pattern would never occur in a real game, but the puzzle shows some of the potential within the variant. Black has pieces at:H8,J12,K8,9,and 10,L7,M7 and 10,N10,O6 and 9, P5 and 9, and Q10. White has pieces at G9,H13,K11,14,and 15,L10,P11,R3. White has 6 of black's stones from captures and black has 4 white. White to play to win in 7 moves with best play by black. I'll send a money order for $100 to the first person to send me an email with a correct solution, or to brainking in their name if they prefer. I'll be interested to see how easy/difficult others find it to solve this. Here's more or less what the board looks like:
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If the stone and +'s don't look aligned try changing your browser's font settings to a fixed font like courier new (thanks Mark) Good Luck! Send solutions to watsu13@yahoo.com