Chek-ro, Poof Pente's older sibling (1957)
Posted:
Feb 28, 2022, 9:16 AM
This game is basically like Poof Pente without tournament rules, but played on a 14x14 grid and with four central points designated as first move options. It came out 20 years before Pente, and is obviously a super simplified version of ninuki renju. Despite (or perhaps because of) the mention of the possibility of a drawn game with a filled board, the tournament rule, despite its flaws clearly gave Pente more legs than Chek-ro. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67770/chek-ro
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
"The other method of winning is to capture ten of your opponent's men. A capture is performed by surrounding two of your opponent's tokens by placing two of your tokens one on each side of his. (Figure 2) If a player places his tokens in a position so as to become out-flanked, he loses the out-flanked pair of tokens to his opponent." Sounds like Poof Pente, but without a rule allowing a play into a poof spot to capture.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
How interesting! I have never heard about this game before. Can someone tell me a bit about its history: Who invented it? Have it been produced and sold, if so: by whom? Any tournaments hold?
Re: Chek-ro, Poof Pente's older sibling (1957)
Posted:
Mar 1, 2022, 12:15 AM
I hadn't heard of it before this morning, when I found a reference to it on an Italian website about Pente. I don't know who invented it, though if I had to guess I would say probably an American chess player who had read Edward Lasker's Modern Chess Strategy. In that book, he briefly described the rules for ninuki renju. The publishing company was called Standard Toykraft. No idea if any tournaments were held or how popular it ever became.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Posts:
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Dec 5, 2021
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Re: Chek-ro, Poof Pente's older sibling (1957)
Posted:
Mar 10, 2022, 4:36 AM
I've been playing a bit of 13x13 on BGA recently, mostly with t0afer. Our most recent game was keryo-boat-poof, and we might revisit it (I'm not a fan of poof).
I'm looking for a variant size that feels claustrophobic, but retains 5-in-a-row as a primary threat...I've got a hunch it's 11x11, but would be thrilled if it was 8x8. The game I'm eager to see rivalled is Squava (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/112745/squava).
Re: Chek-ro, Poof Pente's older sibling (1957)
Posted:
Mar 10, 2022, 5:19 AM
You might try 9x9 and captures can be made but don't win, perhaps in combination with other variants. T0afer and I played that once or twice (with poof and perhaps boat, I think). It was interesting. Not really my game of choice, but interesting.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
