<Thad -

>> But Gary, Walter is not standing in your way. YOU are standing in HIS way. All we want is to have the chance to play fun-pente, but you are telling us that we can't!!! <

I beg to differ and I will state ONCE AGAIN. It is the long-term detremental effect of having incorrect rules on a variant that is SO similar to the correct rules of the game yet strongly negatively impacts one sides chances to win that will SUBSTANTIALLY reduce the growth of the game in the long run.

I WILL rephrase my previous wording. It is the GAME of Fun-pente that is standing in the way, NOT any specfic players in particular.

Thad, I can't understand something. You just played in Section B of the Dweebo's Stone Games (DSG) tourney. As a matter of fact, you played my son, Matthewb, in the final round and I am tournament director of that section. Of course ALL rated games at DSG MUST have the opening restriction. Did you NOT have FUN playing in that tourney WITH the opening restriction? I'm just curious.


Walter -

I can see that you are trying to get me to argue with you once again I won't get involved with that. I will state that I DID make the error ONE time of becoming EXTREMELY upset with you and it was a BIG mistake. I think that anyone can see that I have been more than cordial since that time. Especially considering that at night time, I'm debating against 3 people at once.

Here's how I have now been able to recognize when you are trying to get people to argue with you and not engage in a logical debate. It is when you pick on words like you did in your last post. For instance in your original post, you stated:
>> I personally don't want to be a part of your grand Pente universe, now or in the far flung future. <

I think that most people would construe this to mean that you don't want to be involved in long-term thinking. But then you followed up with:

>> Where did I say I didn't want to be a part of longterm thinking? I said I didn't want to be a part of your longterm scheme.

It is those types of 'I didn't say that, I said this' type of statements that are argumentative and don't accomplish anything.

I'm only stating this to let you know what inflames people sometimes. If you shared my views on the opening restriction topic, I'm sure that Thad and Pioneer54 would ALSO become quite upset at those types of tactics.

To all -

I know that it is hard for most people to accept and understand long-term thinking. Regardless of what you think of me, Dmitri King, or anyone else who chimes in on either side of this issue, it is not ONLY OUR goal, but the goal of MANY players that will attend the tournament in Oklahoma City on May 17th that the game grow substantially and rapidly in the future. Of course one of the topics of discussion will be changing the current opening restriction so that the sides are more even. There will be LITTLE or NO discussion about NOT having a restriction because it is already accepted that the game has a restriction. And it is WITH the restriction that FUTURE strategy guides, opening books, end-game books, databases, software, etc. will be written and/or created.

If you would like to be a part of the explosive growth potential of Pente and be involved in decisions surrounding future World Championships, rules, etc. then play at Brain King and play the game the way that it was intended to be played more than 20 years ago. If you choose to play at IYT, that is fine too, but we think that you will miss out on some future great opportunities in the game and a GREAT site to boot! Whomever this site loses as a result of the opening restriction will be made up for MANY times over in the future when players get REALLY EXCITED about the game from reading about it in strategy guides.

By the way, if you want an elementary strategy guide on Pente (I'm not sure about Keryo Pente), check out a great site at www.playpente.com. See what you think.


Gary