Tips pente

For the rules of pente, see GameHelpPente

Opening Strategy

Opening proposals for Swap and Swap2 pente should consider the following principles:

1. White has the advantage of playing first and is therefore the first player capable of making five in a row.

2. Stones which are all located near the center of the board generally favor white, because they allow room to expand in any direction. Stones placed strategically close to an edge or corner of the board can reduce white's first player advantage by limiting the directions in which white is able to build.

3. If white's stones are placed too far apart from each other and black's stone(s), black can often build potentials and shapes as though s(he) were white, because white will end up with at least one stranded stone which won't affect the game. As an extreme case, consider two white stones in opposite corners of the board with one black stone in the center. White's stones are both useless for defending against black, and black is essentially the first player with two moves in the center before white can defend.

4. If either player's stones are placed next to each other, they form a pair which can be threatened with a capture, which generally weakens the position for that player.

5. Diagonally aligned stones are generally weaker than horizontally and vertically aligned stones because there are fewer stone placements which create strong shapes available with a diagonal alignment.

6. Any opening proposal will favor one side or the other, so the goal is to find a reasonably balanced position which one is comfortable playing from either side of the board.

General Strategy

If the other player has a three which needs to be blocked on one end and can capture a pair of your stones if you block on one side, it's actually better (all else being equal) to play a stone on the end where you can be captured. The reason for this is because if you block on the end where you can't be captured, an experienced player will extend the three on the other end in such a way that you have to play into the capture anyway, and will now have an extra stone (from the extension) which aligns with the stone they play when capturing your pair. What can happen if one doesn't immediately play into the capture is well illustrated by the demonstration of how the pawnbroker shape can be used in Pente:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040131001542/www.playpente.com/pawnbroker.html

Pente for dummies thread at pente.org:

https://pente.org/gameServer/forums/thread.jspa?forumID=27&threadID=4553&tstart=0