Gomoku, also called Five in a Row, is an abstract strategy board game. It is traditionally played with Go pieces on a Go board. It is played using a 15×15 board while in the past a 19×19 board was standard. Because pieces are typically not moved or removed from the board, gomoku may also be played as a paper-and-pencil game. The game is known in several countries under different names.
Pente is an abstract strategy board game for two or more players, created in 1977 by Gary Gabrel. A member of the m,n,k game family, Pente stands out for its custodial capture mechanic, which allows players to "sandwich" pairs of stones and capture them by flanking them on either side. This changes the overall tactical assessments players face when compared to pure placement m,n,k games such as Gomoku.
Go or Weiqi, Weichi is an abstract strategy board game for two players in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. The game was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game continuously played to the present day. A 2016 survey by the International Go Federation's 75 member nations found that there are over 46 million people worldwide who know how to play Go and over 20 million current players, the majority of whom live in East Asia.
The rules of Go have seen some variation over time and from place to place. This article discusses those sets of rules broadly similar to the ones currently in use in East Asia. Even among these, there is a degree of variation.
The pie rule, sometimes referred to as the swap rule, is a rule used to balance abstract strategy games where a first-move advantage has been demonstrated. After the first move is made in a game that uses the pie rule, the second player must select one of two options:
- Letting the move stand. The second player remains the second player and moves immediately.
- Switching places. The second player becomes the first-moving player with the move already done by the opponent, and the opponent plays the first move of their new color.
Many games can be played with Go equipment: a supply of white and black stones and a board with 19×19 intersections, other than Go and many more can be played with minor modification.
Renju is a professional variant of gomoku. It was named renju by Japanese journalist Ruikou Kuroiwa (黒岩涙香) on December 6, 1899 in a Japanese newspaper Yorozu chouhou (萬朝報). The name "renju" comes from the Japanese language, and means "connected pearls" in Japanese. The game is played with black and white stones on a 15×15 gridded go board.
Komi (コミ) in the game of Go are points added to the score of the player with the white stones as compensation for playing second. The value of Black's first-move advantage is generally considered to be between 5 and 7 points by the end of the game.
Connect6 introduced in 2003 by Professor I-Chen Wu at Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, is a two-player strategy game similar to Gomoku.
There are many variations of the simple rules of Go. Some are ancient digressions, while other are modern deviations. They are often side events at tournaments, for example, the U.S. Go Congress holds a "Crazy Go" event every year.
Permainan-Tabal is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Indonesia. The game is sometimes referred to as a cross between Alquerque and Draughts. It is essentially Draughts played on an expanded Alquerque board. It is especially similar to Draughts in that the moves of the pieces are strictly forward and sideways until they are promoted to Kings by reaching the other player's first rank. The game is also referred to as Dama.
Pasang is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Brunei. The game is often referred to as Pasang Emas which is actually a software implementation of the traditional board game. The object of this game is to acquire the most points by capturing black and white tokens on the board. Black tokens are worth 1 point, and white tokens are worth 2 points. The board is initially laid out with all 120 black and white tokens in one of over 30 traditional patterns. Players choose a piece called a "ka" which is used to capture the tokens on the board. Each player's "ka" moves around the board capturing as many tokens as possible. As a note, the "kas" are the only mobile pieces in the game. The other pieces are stationary, and are captured by the "kas". Players must capture token(s) during their turn, or lose the game. When all tokens have been captured from the board, the player with the most points is the winner. However, if there are any tokens left on the board, and none can be captured on a player's turn, then that player loses the game, and the other player is the winner.
Tûkvnanawöpi is a two-player abstract strategy board game played by the Hopi native American Indians of Arizona, United States. The game was traditionally played on a slab of stone, and the board pattern etched on it. Tukvnanawopi resembles draughts and Alquerque. Each player attempts to capture each other's pieces by hopping over them. It is unknown how old the game is; however, the game was published as early as 1907 in Stewart Culin's book "Games of the North American Indians Volume 2: Games of Skill".
Taraguchi opening rule is a renju opening rule. It was proposed by Yusui Yamaguchi as an advancement of a Tarannikov opening rule and therefore it was named with a combination of these two names. It has an enhancement, Taraguchi-N opening rule.
Yamaguchi opening rule is a renju opening rule. It was developed by Japanese player Yusui Yamaguchi.
RIF opening rule is a renju opening rule. It was adopted by the Renju International Federation (RIF) in 1996 as an upgrade to Swap opening rule and was an official rule for Renju World Championships from 1996 till 2008.
Soosõrv opening rule is a renju opening rule. It was proposed by Estonian player Ants Soosõrv.
Renju opening pattern is a Renju position with 3 moves made. All debut classifications in Renju are based on patterns.
There are several world championships in Renju organized by the Renju International Federation, including World Championship, Women World Championships, Team World Championships, Youth World Championships and Correspondence World Championships.