Greetings:

For those of you who do not know me yet, my name is Scott Justice. I've been playing tournament Pente since I was an early teen back in the 80's. The game kind of died out before I hit my prime, but I enjoy it's resurgence online. Back in 1984 when I was sixteen I won the "U.S. Open Pente Tournament" with wins over my older brother Bill, Rollie Tesh and David Comberrel, and splits with Dan Allen and Peter Hudson. I state this just to give you an idea that I know a little about this game.

As mentioned already, Pente, even with the tournament rule, is a sure win for white (player 1). For this reason, I do not really enjoy playing marathon matches on PBEM anymore since P1 can easily defeat P2 with the time to thoroughly analyze the position. I still enjoy playing over-the-board where P2 can muddy the water enough to confuse P1.

If you want to play tournaments and keep ratings, then the game should be played with the tournament rule on a 19x19 board. If your a novice, I would strongly suggest playing the game with the tournament rule. It does not change the game, like keryo pente does, and is quite straight forward. It is beyond me why anyone who takes more than just a passing interest in the game would opt to play without the tournament rule. Do you enjoy playing tic-tac-toe tournaments and keeping a strong tic-tac-toe rating too?

I have no problem having the option to play with or without the rule on a 13x13 board. Although playing that way has no interest for me, I can see why casual gamers who are less competitive and out just for a good time might enjoy playing like minded folk in a small pente game. But, when it comes to playing 19x19, my vote is to play it with the rule.

Now, the bigger issue is how do we even the game out even more without losing the ease of play that makes the game appealing in the first place?

Scott