pentejr:

Yes, player one sets up the 1st 4 stones (2 of each color) then player 2 gets to chose which side to play. The rest of the game is pente. The point is that if player one sets it up right player 2 will have a real difficult time determining which side has an advantage, making the game play from that position very interesting. the shapes of the 1st 4 stones and the resulting game can be extremely varied.