Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 3, 2026, 2:17 AM
Hey, you want me to change my text about No 2 and No 4? Thanks for your proposal but I don't agree that there is anything to change (except maybe softening some words about techniques).
These are your problems and challenges, I've wrote my answers, you are free to judge them knowing everything we wrote to each other in last couple of hours. And then if I'm not satisfied with your judgement about #2 I can post my solution here and publicly discuss it with you remembering this text (please don't change it):
> Where did P1 first mess up. Where did P2 first mess up. What was P2's earliest winning move change, to maintain sure win?
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Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 3, 2026, 2:29 AM
Owen. This is a open running challenge for all players over next 2 years. Posting solutions was clearly stated as prohibited. Other players are still trying to solve. You can debate it over private message with both me and karl. If I need to edit or clarify something I will. Im a fair person.
Im still at work. Ill look at the wording when I get home to my laptop.
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 12:19 PM
So here are two problems from the current Masters tournament, Round 3.
Problem 1 (medium). 5. N13 is generally OK but it may be a suboptimal choice here. Please find the winning sequence of P1 after 4th move of P2 which doesn't start with 5. N13.
Problem 2 (hard). 7th and 8th moves of P2 aren't enough to defend. I don't know is there a better plan for P2 or no, but this one has a refutation. Find the decisive plan for P1 (I know only one plan but maybe there are more than 1; if so, the difficulty of this problem drastically decreases). This plan should start from 9th move of P1. There is no need to find the complete win until pente/5 captures. Instead, you have to find the main line which shows P1's attacking potential. Remember, P2 has a lot of counterplay.
For this very moment these two problems aren't being counted towards Zoeyk's points; just two interesting problems standing aside. Maybe if Karl or Zoey are able to solve them (I'm sure they are but it's a matter of free time and motivation) and we agree that solutions are correct and unique, these problems may become official as well.
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 3:45 PM
I assume he would want answers in PM like the other problems, but I'll say a couple things. If I played it again I likely would do a different 5th (and I see what I can do). 6th O14 I looked at for a long time but I was struggling with it so I kinda last minute flipped to N9... I'm sure I was missing something.
I actually thought Owen would do a different 7th based on how I perceive he plays, and one of those possibilities I also struggled with finding the solution to. So I'm curious if others would consider an alternate path there for P2.
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 3:53 PM
Some sidenotes. 1. Problem 1 is starting at the 5th move (and it should be different from 5th played in the game), problem 2 is starting at the 9th move. Which problem are you solving with 6. O14?
2. Zoeyk was against publishing solutions here, in the thread. And it is very reasonable if these points affect chances to qualify anywhere. So please send your solution by PM =)
3. Last, but not least. Thanks for the attempt, this 6th looks decent too.
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Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 5:31 PM
Neither of your problems were interesting to me.
Move 5 is fine. It doesn't need to be changed.
Move 6 is where the mistake occurred. O14 looks good to me.
Once move 6 is fixed, 9th move from original line is totally irrelevant. I will leave subsequent moves after 6 O14 as a puzzle.
If you want better answers, ask better questions. Maybe don't pick puzzles that look like thinly veiled bragging. Maybe post a loss instead of a victory. You have a few recent ones that could make for excellent puzzles
It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 7:30 PM
"Maybe post a loss instead of a victory." There's a long history of study of where P1's error or win in a lost game was, likely dating to well before Tesh's P2 victory in the Boston semifinal. Interesting is interesting, regardless of who posts or who won. Just my two cents.
Message was edited by: watsu at Oct 7, 2026, 5:30 PM
Retired from rated TB Pente, but still playing live and TB variants
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Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 8:06 PM
It's not showing a P1 loss that's the issue, it's how it's presented. The goal should not be to highlight all the ways that P1 (aka your poor opponent) messed up, but instead to focus on the critical moment where P1 let go of the win (in the example above, the 6th move).
I will attempt to lead by example.
In the Winter's Coming 2020 tourney, I won a P2 game with this opening:
K10,K9,N10,M10,N8,L8,N9,N7,N12,N11,O12,L9
In the next round, I was cocky and dumb and allowed mumix, a talented and motivated up-and-comer at the time, to use the same opening against me. I lost immediately on a stupid mistake on my 11th move, but I was almost certainly already losing by that point.
The puzzle: After P1's 6th move O12, who is winning?
-If P1 is winning, at what point did he make the game-losing mistake?
-If P2 is winning, recommend a better 5th move for P1 (without consulting the db!)
It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
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Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 7, 2026, 8:31 PM
Not positive, but I can't find a clean win for P1 after it, especially after what I consider to be the strongest P2 7th/8th move plan (withheld for religious reasons).
I'm about 80% sure P1 is losing after N9. The other 20% is I see P1 having an extremely hard time finding the needle in the haystack, which still means something went wrong out of the opening.
I'm also about 80% sure P1 is winning after O14.
It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
