Posts:
3
Registered:
Jun 20, 2024
From:
Texas
Age:
55
How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 8, 2024, 8:47 PM
I sometimes play a version where one can only win the game by capturing 10 stones. Would be nice to have that option. It could be set as the base rule for winning by both players or as a handicap. Thoughts?
Re: How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 9, 2024, 12:51 AM
At first blush, it sounds odd. I've played where captures are an option, but only 5 in a row wins, but I'm not sur how one would go about forcing an opponent to play into a capture if 5 in a row doesn't win. Maybe I'm missing something.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Posts:
47
Registered:
Sep 25, 2021
From:
Boston
Age:
57
Re: How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 9, 2024, 3:12 AM
Just thinking out loud, but you could play a version where you're required to prevent your opponent from making 5 in a row whenever possible, but 5 in a row still doesn't win. That would be a genuinely different version: think of a situation where you have two ways of making 5 in a row, and the rule requires (of course) that I block (or capture across) just one of them.
Re: How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 9, 2024, 5:12 PM
Okay, perhaps... but how far back is one required to attempt to deal with a potential 5 threat which doesn't actually win? At a double 3 threat level? At a potential 4/3 or fukumi level? Does one's opponent have to force the requirement to be done, otherwise one can pretend not to see the threat? It seems confusing to me.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 10, 2024, 7:08 AM
"It could be played on a much smaller board, to fix the problem where you could spend many many turns filling up the board without capturing." True. 11x11 boards worked reasonably well for games of anti Pente. I'm not sure whether or not I'd enjoy it, but the smaller board seems a less confusing option than requiring blocks. IDK if it'd be much like Pente, TBH.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Posts:
437
Registered:
Jan 23, 2009
From:
north carolina
Age:
48
Re: How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 14, 2024, 5:07 AM
i think its brilliant, origami! i would love a caps only version! i play that way often w/ friends and we dont seem to run into the complications of board size, etc...
Re: How about a game of captures?
Posted:
Jul 15, 2024, 7:06 PM
Yes, I suggest origami and invictus discuss exactly what implicit rule or rules they have been following when playing Pente where only a win by captures counts as an actual win. Because, if they were playing this with me and I didn't know the implicit rule, I would be playing a game in which I was looking to fill the board with as few pairs as possible, regardless of my opponent's strategy. The game would take a long time to play and be pretty boring until the end game, in which one side or the other was forced to make a pair. It would look a lot more like anti Pente than Pente.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
