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Statistics of won games
white	38721 (54.22 %)
black	32622 (45.68 %)
Draws	63 (0.08 %)

Pente

Start position and game object

Pente is played on 19x19 board and the pieces are placed on line intersections, not on the squares. The game starts on the empty board:



The object is to place 5 or more pieces in a solid row vertically, horizontally or diagonally, or to capture at least 10 opponent's pieces.

How to place pieces

Each player can place one piece on an empty intersection per move. However, in order to balance the white and black's chances to win, several restrictions are applied:

• White's first piece must be placed to the board center - the K10 intersection:
  
  
  
  
• White's second piece must be placed at least three intersections away from the K10 center in any direction. It means that the second move of the white player must be made anywhere (at empty intersection) outside the red square:
  
  
  
  
• There are no restrictions for black's moves. Black player can place his/her pieces on any empty intersection.

How to capture opponent's pieces
A player captures opponent's pieces if he/she surrounds a vertical, horizontal or diagonal solid row of two and only two opponent's pieces. The captured pieces are immediately removed from the board. The following picture shows the situation before and after the white player captured two black pieces:

  

• It is possible to make a multi-capture by surrounding two or more pairs of opponent's pieces at once.
• If a player places his/her stone to a position that makes his/her pair of pieces surrounded by opponent's pieces, the pieces are not captured. The capture can happen only as a result of a move of the capturing player.

How to finish the game

The game is finished if one of the following conditions in fulfilled:

• One player makes a solid row of 5 or more pieces of his/her color horizontally, vertically or diagonally. This player wins the game.
• One player captures 10 or more opponent's pieces. This player wins the game.
• There is no empty intersection on the board, all intersections are occupied by white or black pieces. The game is a draw. However, because of the possibility to capture pieces, this situation occurs very rarely.

Play this game

See also: Five in Line, Line4, Anti Line4, Linetris, Spider Line4, Pente, Keryo Pente, Small Pente, Small Keryo Pente, Open Pente, Open Keryo Pente, Spider Linetris, Pro Five in Line, Swap Five in Line, PahTum, Hasami Shogi, Connect6, Lines of Action, Scrambled Eggs, Parachute Lines of Action, Cheshire Cat Lines of Action