<>resolved by removing ALL affected pairs for both sides

OK, that sounds good I'll have to try the updated puzzle with that rule.

> if we can figure this out we can play pente evenly with no opening move restrictions!

That is true that you could assign points to the game so that players could receive a fair score in a game without opening restrictions, BUT it would be an uninteresting game! It would be too lopsided and too short of a game, I would rather see a longer battle.

-Mark