A sample Pente game
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| Players | 2-4 |
|---|---|
| Playing time | 5-30 minutes |
| Random chance | None |
| Skill(s) required | Strategy |
Pente is a strategy board game for two or more players, created in 1977 by Gary Gabrel, a dishwasher at Hideaway Pizza, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Customers played Pente at Hideaway Pizza on checkerboard tablecloths while waiting for their orders to arrive. Thirty years later, patrons are still playing Pente at Hideaway Pizza, although now with roll-up Pente boards. Pente is based on the Japanese game ninuki-renju, a variant of renju or gomoku that is played on a Go board of 19x19 intersections with white and black stones. Like renju and ninuki-renju, Pente allow captures, but Pente added a new opening rule. In the nineteenth century, gomoku was introduced to Britain where it was known as "Go Bang." (borrowed from Japanese "goban" 碁盤 meaning "go board")
Pente is a registered trademark of Hasbro for strategy game equipment. Pente (πέντε) is the number five in Greek.
Hasbro ceased distribution of Pente in 1993. It later licensed the game to Winning Moves, a classic games publisher that resurrected the game in 2004. The 2004 version includes 4 extra stones, called power stones, that can be played in the Pente Plus version.
The players alternate in placing stones of their color on free intersections, with White always assuming the opening move. The players aim to align five stones of the same color suite in vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines. Captures are obtained by flanking pairs of an opponent's stones in any same direction. (captures must consist of pairs; flanking a single stone does not result in a capture, nor does flanking three in a row) A player cannot lead their own stones into capture by moving into a flank after the fact. A player wins by scoring five stones in a row, or capturing five pairs of opponent stones. Pente can also be played by four people, with pairs of two acting as partners.
In this common variation, the first player's second move is restricted - it must be at least three intersections away from the center of the board. The tournament rule was created by Tom Braunlich to subvert the advantage held by the first player.