Gary said:
I beg to differ and I will state ONCE AGAIN. It is the long-term detrimental 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.

My reply:
If I define Fun-pente as Pente without the move restriction, what is it about the rules that is incorrect? The rules are different, but that doesn’t make them incorrect. And they’re not incorrect because I’ve eliminated a rule. As an example, Go-Moku is Pente without the capture rule, and Go-Moku’s rules are certainly correct.


Gary said:
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.

Yeah, that tournament is alright. I think it’s lasted way too long, even if you deduct time for when the site is down. Plus I think I’ve reached the point where my game is as good as it is going to get without reading books, studying old games, etc. I play pente because I enjoy playing. I don’t want to invest the time and effort it takes doing things I wouldn’t enjoy doing in order to improve my game. I’ve played Dmitri a lot at IYT, sometimes it’s fun, but more often than not, I put a tremendous amount of effort into games against him and still come up short. I think I beat him as player 2 once or twice, and I know he’s said that one move I made against him was amongst the best he’s seen, so that’s cool. He’s said he thinks I could be an elite player if I put my mind to it, and he’s probably right. Maybe someday.

Thad