Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Sep 14, 2011, 1:08 AM
I would love to see more attention paid to Pente ala chess and go, both in terms of public tournaments and literature. Why is this not the case in your opinion? Is it that Pente lacks the beginning/mid/end game complexity of those other two abstracts? Does it not lend itself to long-term strategy and planning? Is it too dependent on forced lines (whatever that really means)? I'm just beginning to study Pente and have found very little aside from the two Braunlich books (and, of course, this great website and community). Thanks.
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Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Sep 16, 2011, 2:20 AM
well i keep meaning to write a book, and up2ng wanted to write one too. for him i think it was a time issue. for me i start on stuff but get mental blocks or basically hit a burn out hindering my writers inspiration. plus many of the concepts i want to discuss constantly evolve. in addition there is still a slight debate on what are correct definitions and term usages to create a pente language. as for why its not as big as go and chess, well it ends in less moves. its not as complex. and none have heard of it because the ones who bought the rights to pente decided to financially put it on the back burner and let games like monopoly and rubics cube to the front stage in advertizements. pente became the step child that they didn't care about, nor believe in. if there were commercials on tv for it over the last 30 years then all the world would know it as a American house hold name. pente is a underground small community thing and will stay that way Forever and ever. sad but true.
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Sep 16, 2011, 4:47 PM
There's probably also an age factor in there, too. While pente has only been around a few decades, chess and Go are both many centuries old and so have become somewhat ubiquitous. Who knows, maybe by 2200 AD pente will be a household name.
Personally, I'm more surprised that certain other ancient games, like Hnefatafl (King's Table), haven't enjoyed anything approaching the same popularity as chess and Go. It couldn't simply be because they're not as easy to pronounce.
Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Sep 17, 2011, 9:16 AM
Screw the prophecies of doom!
Pente is an ancient game. I heard that some pizza-cook claims to have invented it. But rumor has it, that he learned Pente by watching some Cowboys that used to come eat pizza and get drunk. They learned from various American Indians as a secret sacred ritual, once they got to pass'n round the Peace-Pipe (if ya know what I mean). Ancient Ice-Carvings prove that rudimentary Pente variants were passed along by tribes who migrated from the Asian continent by crossed the Bering Strait (when it was frozen). Although, due to Anthropogenic Global Warming, those Ice-Carvings have long since vanished. But I digress...
Pente rocks! It will go on. It may well evolve into multi-player and three dimensions, but it will endure. If I thought I was really good at it, I'd try promoting Pente rather than cursing it.
Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Sep 19, 2011, 9:11 AM
Hey Remix, this is a good question.
I agree with all the points above and would add that the existence of a vast literature for Chess and Go is mostly due to the prospect of selling lots of copies of books on the subject because the market is so vast. Writing a book on Pente would not be commercially viable, and I don't think it would, in itself, do anything to increase it's player base. A Pente book would be a labour of love and let's face it, who has the time? The same applies to running public tournements which cost money to run and promote. So, I think that unless someone can convince the current holder of the rights to Pente to sell to another company that really wants to promote it then the status quo will remain.
Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Sep 30, 2011, 9:18 AM
Fact: Pente was "invented" in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Fact: Stillwater is home to the 5th ranked OSU "Cowboys".
Fact: Cowboys eat pizza, drink beer, and play Pente at "Hideaway Pizza", the very restaurant-birthplace of Pente.
Fact: Cowboys and Indians have been interacting and exchanging Fire-Water and Peace-Pipes for hundreds of years now.
Fact: Oklahoma (formerly "Indian Nations") became the home of many different Tribes as they were unjustly displaced from around the country.
Pente (as we call it) was a super secret ritual to many of the people. And the first rule of Pente was that they didnt talk about Pente. If you need to prove this to yourself, just ask any American Indian if they know anything about the game of Pente, and they'll "act" like they dont know anything about it. Back then, it didnt even have a name, but for sake of discussion, lets keep calling it "Pente".
It was only played by men at council meetings. They used it as a way to determine who had the foresight to lead the people. It was a peaceful civilized way for the people to always have the best and the brightest to guide them. Had it not been for the Cowboy's Fire-Water, white men may never have seen it.
And men took great pride in their stones. Each set had to be unique, but nearly identical to each other. It took a long time for a man to gather enough, so as not to lose from running out. As a man became older, he would trade up for a better set of stones, if he couldnt come up with his own. People laugh now, but those who sold the island of Manhattan were not trading for beads for a necklace, their mind was on Pente.
Ever notice how the first "Pente" stones were kept in draw-string leather pouches? In the movies, costumed Indians told others that those pouches hanging from their hips were for valuables, and our culture just assumed they kept gold or jewels. But no, those were Pente pouches.
Mats or boards were nice to have, but not very important. As any ground, sand, or even ice would do. I have no proof of this, but the Greek graphics on Pente boards may have been something the "inventor" came up with to divert attention away from the game's actual origins.
But it all makes me wonder, if Pente had an Indian curse placed on it, kind of like in the movie McKenna's Gold. Pente was never supposed to be trifled with. And just as the idea of buying or selling land was foreign to most Indians, so was the notion of selling that which had no name, and was never spoken of.
So maybe when someone sold "Pente", they cursed it. Cursed it to a life of obscurity. So that some day, when it is all but forgotten, the secret can live on, but only for the few who still have the stones to play it.
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Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Oct 2, 2011, 8:50 AM
The motherland of Pente is Japan. The Go-moku (Renju) game and Go game is famouse in Japan for many years. Ninuki-Renju is the japanese variant of this game with goal to create five in a row and captures like in Go. If you read "Master Go" the great book of Kawabata - Nobel prize winner in literature, you can find that two great Go masters during their match relax by playing Ninuki-Renju . Ninuki Renju had Federation and publish Magazine in Japan before second World War. During the occupation Japan by USA , USA army members interested japanese games - like Go and Ninuki. Someone bring this game to USA mainland , but the rules of foult 3x3 and 4x4, overline for P1 was too hard to explain, so it was simplifyed, and with such simple variant it was called Pente and was "invented".
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Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Oct 8, 2011, 9:29 PM
Hey guys. I think this video posted below might give you some insights about process of learning renju (similar to Pente game) in Russia (well, at least in one part of the country), how the youth are getting attracted to this game.
Do not be discouraged by the beginning, it will develop. English subtitles accompanied this film, so no worries.
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Re: Why is Pente not as popular or studied as chess and go?
Posted:
Oct 9, 2011, 2:43 PM
Yes, Irina Metreveli great Renju teacher. She make great childrens Renju Club in small village Poduga, very deep Russia -Arkhangelskaya oblast. Like Alaska in USA.
