Thanks for these recent posts Gary, it good to see that you can understand and entertain everyone's thoughts. I agree with the initial idea that if someone wants to play Pente seriously, especially in tournaments, it is essential to learn and play with the opening restriction. But I also see no reason to ban anyone from playing the simpler game without the restriction if they'd like (or tic tac toe for that matter :).

I think we can do well with having some kind of option for the opening restriction. And maybe be prepared for other opening rules -- see my post on the Pente board about opening rules and the World Pente Federation.

-MM