It is true Mark, that pente without opening move restrictions would be a short and lopsided game (at least for the players who know the game); mainly my point was to emphasize that opening restrictions are unnecessary in order to make a fair game out of pente. I suspect that most of us would still play with the current tournament rules if points were used to get rid of white's edge. Some might want to play the game they were used to (without restrictions) and they could be the ones to analyse their games to determine the weighing factors to make theirs a fair game, while we would determine ours :~} The keryo masters would find theirs, etc. I'm not even certain that my variant needs an equalizer. Who knows? My other point is still valid, though, I think, which is that determining the points for whatever version one plays enables new and less experienced players to have a chance to learn the game from masters without the downside of feeling totally outmatched and not being able to see their improvement. I feel that this is important in building confidence in learning; constant frustration is not as conducive to a quick steep learning curve as is a consistently positive reinforcement as they can witness the handicap shrink match by match. After all, even if your team doesn't win, if you bet on them to beat the point spread and they do, you have some consolation. :~) Also, if someone like me, who started out playing pente without opening move restrictions wants to learn the game with restrictions, matches would be possible to set up using both, to facilitate the learning process; i.e.- when I was first learning,I could play a match of 3 or 4 games with you with you starting as white and playing tournament rules. If after observing your strategies as player 1 I still didn't feel like I could play it effectively, I could open without restriction on my turn- the difference would be factored into the score. The scoring allows things like this: if you beat me by 100 points in our first match, give me a handicap of 60 points. Next round if I only lose by 20 points I can see that I've improved by 20 points. Next match the handicap is 40 and I lose by 15 points. I've already improved by 45 points in just two matches! Wow, this is a fun game and you are a great teacher!