To all -

I would like to state why the opening restriction is necessary in Pente and Keryo Pente.

I know that MOST players are NOT top players and that they CAN win SOME of their games as player 2 in BOTH Pente and Keryo Pente. But, IN THE LONG RUN, that percentage will ALWAYS be less, even amongst novice players. I have already proven that to Walter and Dangerous Mind by using their own tournament stats at IYT. It could also easily be mathematically proven, but that shouldn't be necessary.

The fact that player 1 has an overwhelming advantage is only ONE of the MAIN reasons that the restriction is necessary, but NOT the MOST important one! The MOST important one is as follows:

It is the goal of MANY players for Pente to grow as large as other games like Chess. In order for a game to grow that large, MANY top MASTER-level players MUST become interested in it and promote it. Here is why that is the case:
1. Master-level players will write strategy books and guides.
2. Master-level players will create databases and software for the game.
3. Master-level players will teach other players how to improve their play.
4. MOSTLY Master-level players will promote the game, sometimes sponser tourneys, and attempt to find sponsers for national and world-championship level tournaments. (Lower-level players could do this, but getting sponsership would be FAR more difficult if you don't have an intimate grasp of strategy.)

It is THESE things that generate GREAT interest in a game! In order for ALL of these things to occur, MANY master-level players MUST play the game because MANY of these things take a HUGE amount of time and only a small percentage of even high-level players have that time. Right now in Pente, I would say that there are about 20-25 of them max. The reason that there aren't more is because high-level players keep dropping out. They keep dropping out because even in Pente WITH the restriction, player 1 has a fairly large advantage. That advantage is actually MUCH less than in KERYO pente WITHOUT the restriction, so it is a good example. The problem is, there is no more analysis and strategy that they can do to improve their chances to win as player 2. So it makes no sense for them to create strategy guides, openings books, software improvements, etc. because there is no 'strategy' for player 2 against a virtually perfect player 1. He would just be hoping to get lucky.

IN order for the above to occur, we need 100's of master-level players if not 1000's worldwide, like there are in Chess!! By master-level, I'm not referring to the elite of the elite, like full-time grand-masters in Chess. Master-level is all that is needed to accomplish what is needed to make the game become MUCH bigger and more popular.

So the point being that if we want Pente and Keryo Pente to become the EXTREMELY popular games that we think that they can become, BOTH sides MUST have a reasonable chance to win amongst ALL players, novices and masters alike.

I would also like to refer you to the regular (19x19) Pente and Keryo Pente discussion boards. On both of them, I go into GREAT detail about why NOT having the opening restriction actually HURTS the development of beginning and intermediate-level players. As a general rule, it reduces their ability to consider split-3's and pairs as attacking weapons. This occurs because player 1 frequently does not need these weapons when already starting with such a large advantage and player 2 is just hoping to 'mix up' the position enough so that player 1 gets confused.

The opening restriction was added less than 2 years after the game was invented more than 25 years ago. IYT just made a mistake when they created the game to begin with so we have intervened here to make sure that the long-term betterment of the game is not negatively impacted once again.

As far as considering it a variant. NOT having the opening restriction is NOT a variant, it is an actual error in the rules. I would compare this error to allowing White to start with 2 Rooks vs. Black's 1 Rook in Chess and not changing ANYTHING else but still calling it Chess. The advantage for player 1 in Pente WITHOUT the restriction would actually be MORE than that and in Keryo Pente, it would be comparable but probably still more. Sure, black will win a lot of games at the lower ranks, SOME games at the intermediate ranks, and VERY few at the high-intermediate ranks, but he will win virtually ZERO at the master-level ranks. If Chess were changed in this way, the top players would leave the game and only beginners and intermediates would play it, but they would stop trying to improve once they got to a certain level because there would be no point in continuing, so there would no longer be the HUGE sponsorship for the game that there is currently. THAT's a VERY good comparison as to what is happening in Pente and why Keryo Pente hasn't become more popular.

Dmitri King and I are currently playing a total of SIX games as player 1 ONLY on a 13x13 board without the restriction here and at IYT against Walter, Dangerous Mind, and Pioneer54 in order to demostrate that player 2 cannot win without it. We anticipate some follow-up games to further demonstrate the point. All of these players have won titles at IYT, one has won MANY titles, and they ALL have won 80-90%+ of their games there, so we know that this will be a good test.

One thing that I have found is that after playing Pente and Keryo Pente WITH the restriction and THEN going back to playing as player 1 without it like we are doing in the demostration above, it almost seems laughable how MANY different ways that we can CHOOSE to win, regardless of what player 2 does.

With all of this said, I would PLEASE encourage EVERYONE to play Pente and Keryo Pente WITH the restriction and correct rules instead of with the incorrect rules at IYT. It is still just as much fun, you won't care which side that you play, and you will learn some strategies for attacking as player 1 that you would have never imagined had you continued to play without the restriction. It is in trying these new positions and formations that will ALSO make the game fun, if not more so. You might even find that the stone patterns are prettier because they will be a little more spread out! :-)


Gary