To all -

My name is Gary Barnes. I am the director of one of one of the sections of a large real-time Pente tournament at Dweebo's Stone Games at www.pente.org. Dmitri King and I are both top Pente players and were instrumental in forwarding the correct rules for Pente and Keryo Pente to Filip (Fencer) so that he could get those games set up on his great site. When we did this, it took him less than a week to have the games on the site, which impressed us.

I'd like to make a few comments about the advantage enjoyed by one side in several board games as it relates to the need for everyone to play everyone else in one game of each color in tournaments here at Brainking.

In Pente, even with the correct and current opening restriction on white (player 1), white still has a moderate advantage amongst intermediate-level players. This advantage is increased as the skill of the players increase. It is increased even further in turn-based play, because players can study the positions for long periods of time, if they wish. In E-mail World Pente championships, it is not uncommon for player 1 to win 75-80% of games. Fortunately, we have the opening restriction or player 1 would probably win 98+% of games in top-level turn-based competition. This brings up the game of 5-in-a-line on BrainKing here.

A top Gomoku (5-in-a-line here) player by the name of Istvan Virag along with one other person successfully solved the game of Gomoku as a forced win in 24 moves by white (player 1) on the recognized standard of a 15x15 board. That is because there is no opening restriction for white like there is in Pente.

What this means is that if black plays PERFECTLY, then he can last no more than 24 moves if white plays perfectly and will always lose. While perfect play is unlikely in any game, the fact that a win by force can be accomplished in only 24 moves indicates the overwhelming advantage enjoyed by White in Gomoku (5-in-a-line), even amongst intermediate-level players. This advantage would be even greater on the larger 20x20 board that has been used frequently here at Brainking.

Because of these things and the fact that in many games, one side owns either a small or substantial advantage to start the game, I have just recently sent off an E-mail to Filip suggesting that players play 2-games, one of each color, against all opponents in tournaments.

With that said, I think that the Sonneborn-Berger method for breaking ties is EXCELLENT, but ONLY if everyone gets to play one game of each color against all of their opponents. Otherwise, I would agree that it makes things MORE unfair for a strong player who happens to unluckily get the disadvantageous side against another strong player.