Here’s an equalizing concept for pente’s most annoying thorn; the inequality of player 1’s extra stone advantage over player 2.
I call it Dekaton Pente, from the ancient Greek for ‘one in ten.’
The game play is the same as with tour rule Pente, but with a twist; P1 must play a sacrifice stone (tithe stone) to any position a minimum of 5 spaces from center of the board with one of his 1st ten stones. Thus the tithe stone is possibly left somewhat out of action, giving a strength trade back to P2 that he suffered under P1 in the early game.
The flexibility of when P1 should play the tithe stone will add new dimensions to game strategy, and make playing more challenging if not thorny for P1.
Perhaps 5 spaces won’t be enough, but at 1st glance it seems interesting to me.
five probably is too little, i think. Maybe if dweebo gets it programmed, we could try it out, since thats really the best test.
The only pitfall i could see is that people would just play their second stone out five (some do already) and it would just go on like normal. But setting it too far out there would then give the mathematical advantage to player two. maybe something like their third-13th turn or something along those lines could be better.
The only thing here is not to make it so overly complicated that it takes twenty minutes to learn. But that's just my own opinion.
I am not yet certain, but I believe 5 spaces from center would probably be enough.
Strategy for P1 would obviously change in order to anticipate the tithe, but the openings would probobly remain consistant with tour rule openings.
P2 would also alter his\her strategy in anticipating the tithe. P2 could possibly play less aggressive than is the demand in tour rule for P2 to win, and could play a bit more defensively, just to lay shape and hang on until the tithe came, so that he\she could make a strong offensive strike from better shape.
Not sure of all the nuances just yet, haven't played it enough.
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May 9, 2002
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Northeast USA
Re: Dekaton Pente
Posted:
Apr 6, 2005, 5:35 PM
There already exists little markings on the board, which currently aren't really used. They form a box 6 spaces from the center. Perhaps, like the tourney rule, this "tithe" stone would have to be placed "on or outside" the outer box.
That being said, I'm not too wild about pente variations that try to address the "extra stone" issue -- the whole nature of stone games is such that someone gets to play an extra stone. This is how these types of games differ so much from a game like chess, where both players have the same number of pieces and someone gets to simply make the first "move" vs having the first "piece".
Some variations have been suggested in the past to address that issue, such as creating a "neutral stone". Although I haven't really tried it, I think the "power stone" version also tries to "fix" the issue. Another thought might be at some point (say, after the 10th move) player 2, along with making his move, may remove one of player 1's stones (counting towards his 10 capture stones needed to win) and replacing it with some sort of 3rd color stone which neither player may use -- it's just a stone that gets in the way. Etc, etc. I just think these types of tweaks don't work very well and start to deviate away from the original game too greatly.
I tend to favor a combination of the swap rule (such as in D-Pente, or even some kind of multiple swapping like exists in Renju) and playing pente as one or more set(s) of 2 games, switching sides after each game, and a player must win by 2 games.
Do this, and a pente match becomes 100% even chances for both players to win -- all that's left is skill.
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58
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Jan 19, 2002
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Re: Dekaton Pente
Posted:
Apr 9, 2005, 9:54 AM
I wonder if there is an easy way to search the database to see what percent of the games have one of the first 10 moves of P1 at least 5 out. I bet it would be very high. Almost every opening I see has one of the first 10 moves that far out. I don't think that this would make it much more even.
