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Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 10, 2026, 4:40 AM
Noah remind me to interview you after you finish your p1 games with karl and owen in round 4. Regardless of result, you've doubled down on that, so im fascinated, and rooting for you. Youre a mad man.
Also, im unsure. But it looks like a couple players are copying karl? Maybe? I'll have questions later perhaps.
This has been an interesting tourney so far.
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 10, 2026, 11:43 AM
By the way, Zoey, did you check my solutions?
> We can play it out when I get home, in here, with our 2 posts side by side, and simply update edit our posts with moves, to prevent flooding the thread with posts. > Of course in my analysis I think I had put p2 as already extending to 4. I've created a board but as far as I understand you don't have P1 win declared above because you thought extending four is a must, is this statement correct? You are thinking about P1 plan now, correct?
You know, when I teach students renju, I tell them that if you want to play a four, you must always know your next move. If the best move of your opp is exactly to the place you wanted to play 4 in advance, well, it may be worthy to play 4 before this next move. If no (and some foul-specific things aren't involved), you don't need this four yet and usually playing it may make thing worse for you. One easy check is: if you play your next move without playing your four in advance, your opp replies to the spot you wanted to play your four and you have a win after that, you definitely don't need to play the four. Sorry, my English is bad so the phrase looks very messy =( feel free to say it better. Edit: there is one pente-specific thing: you should know more than one move in advance because eventually you may become unable to play this four or there may emerge a new defense with capturing through your four. That's how I've lost my first game to karlw, calculated a complicated win (in mind, no board involved) but didn't realize I have to play a four with the very first move. But that's not the case in our position, this four may be easily played later if needed.
If 7. ... J13 8. N9, then P2 has a huge attack with 8. ... M9. So, frankly, I didn't even check whether P1 wins if P2 extends or no because for me it is obviously bad thing to extend this four, no need to go deeper.
--- So far there is only one enthusiast who solved my problem #1, it is Karl (thanks for giving it a try). Nobody attempted to solve problem #2.
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 10, 2026, 2:54 PM
Your problem#2 you said "you have to find the main line which shows P1's attacking potential", can you clarify what this means? Do you mean until a VCF spot, a few moves before victory?
I did send you what i thought was next 2 moves, maybe it was wrong then haha
Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 10, 2026, 3:29 PM
The win itself is much more complicated than in problem #1. So all I want is P1 to launch a decisive attack; say, 3-5 first moves depending on P2's replies ending with a powerful P1 attack. As some players here say, "momentum".
Sorry for not answering, mea culpa, now you have a message from me.
And I have one more answer for problem #1 from a player who prefers anonymity (he even contacted me not via pente.org). And I have to admit now that my problem #1 has two correct solutions, his attack also works =( The first move is the same but then there are at least two possible continuations which use different ideas. Alas.
Posts:
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Re: Pente Master's Official Skill Test thread
Posted:
Oct 10, 2026, 5:34 PM
Ive been very busy at work. And sleeping. So I just check in by phone. Im unable to put much attention to game problem stuff till I have a day off with my laptop. Sorry.
Scire hostis animum - Intelligere ludum - Nosce te ipsum - Prima moventur conciliat - Nolite errare