On Pente...

Back in the late ‘70's or early ‘80's (you guys with the "old timer" jokes just calm down, okay?), I received a gift of a board game that I had never heard of before, called "Pente" (pronounced PEN-tay). It’s a "stone game," not because it’s fun to play when you’re stoned, but because it’s loosely related to a number of ancient oriental games played by placing small stones on a board of intersecting grid lines. The oldest and perhaps most well-known stone game is called "Go," which originated in China more than 2,000 years ago, invented at a time and by person(s) unknown. Other games played on the same board include "Go-moku," "Renju" and "Ninuki-Renju" (I swear I am not making this up). Wikipedia claims that "Gomoku was introduced to Britain in the 19^th century, where it was known as "Go-Bang" (borrowed from the Japanese 'Goban' meaning 'Go board')", but you never know how accurate Wikipedia is.

Gomoku is essentially a glorified game of tic-tac-toe, in that two players strive to place five of their stones in an uninterrupted line. Seriously, that’s the whole game. Take turns placing stones. Get five in a row. Simple, right?

Yeah.

Anyhoo, at some point in the 1970's a brilliant fellow in Oklahoma (of all places) by the name of Gary Gabrel applied a couple of twists to the rules of Gomoku, and began in 1977 to market the resulting game under the name "Pente" (the Greek word for "five"). Shortly thereafter I received the above-mentioned gift, and my approach to games in general was forever altered.

You see, over the years I have come to appreciate Pente as more than "just a game." Rather, I believe it captures the essence of EVERY game that ever was, boiled down to a short, simple set of rules that take all of five minutes to learn. It’s classified as an "abstract strategy" game, and the strategic lessons it offers to teach are certainly abstract in nature; readily apparent (after a few games) yet difficult to describe in anything other than the broadest of terms. For example, chess players often speak of the importance of anticipating one’s opponent’s next move, and rightly so. Beginning players may be able to see the value in that idea as a generalization, but are often unable to apply the concept as they struggle to remember how each piece moves. The beginning Pente player is a different story; after their first loss they are typically able to anticipate and (at least attempt to) prevent their opponent from making the moves that led to their prior defeat. What was once a nebulous, undefined concept (anticipate my opponent’s moves) begins to become clear in very concrete ways (Ah ha! My opponent moved there, and I recognize the pattern because he beat the crap out of me that way before, so this time I’ll foil his evil plot by moving here).

I hold that anyone who is involved in any sort of competition would benefit from learning to play Pente. From salespeople to sports teams, from marketing consultants to military commanders, from politicians to protestors, corporate CEOs to camp counselors to computer consultants (ahem), the lessons learned from Pente often bleed over into real life in unexpected ways. Pente can change the way you think.

When I look up at the night sky, I think "Hmmm. If it were my turn, I’d move to the left side of Orien’s belt, and hope the other player doesn’t see how he’s got this game won already."


Smibo can sometimes be found at www.pente.org under the name SmeefPeef, getting his ass kicked by some of the best Pente players in the world.