Thad: I am one of the few that disagree with this perceived P1 advantage. I lose as P1 often enough to know that if someone REALLY wants to put in the time there is usually a way to take the game away from your P1 opponent. I also tend to win a lot of games where I'm P2 also, so implying that P1 has such a sizable advantage that a players best course of action is to quit playing pente & switch to connect6 doesn't seem quite sound to me.

to each their own I suppose. Personally I've played 'te for far too long and appreciate all the subtle nuances each years worth of playing against the best players brings to the games overall evolution....it's far from played out.

pente never gets dull to me....any game without captures is another variant of go-moku to me and that kind of strategizing where stones don't ever come off the board (allowing for unplanned significant change to the playing field) does seem dull . That's just my opinion. I'm sure connect6 can be fun, but for me....captures are a must for laying another dimension of play possiblity onto the game.