Pente Championships in Oklahoma City
JLG
Go-Moku, while retaining the complexity. He called it Pente. He copyrighted
the rules, replaced the Go board with a decorated vinyl mat, rolled it up
and put it in a mailing tube adorned with the game's name, and started
selling it. The game became very popular, and there were a number of world
championship tournaments in the late '70s and early '80s. After the 1983
world championship tournament in Boston, Gabrel sold the rights to the game
to Parker Brothers.
Fast forward 20 years to 1998. It turns out that the early 1980s was Pente's
peak. It appears that Parker Brothers never made much of a push to market
the game, and the game is now licensed to a company called Decipher. No
world championship or other major tournaments were held after the 1983 world
championship. No one has heard much about Pente lately, although the game is
still popular among strategy game enthusiasts. Several sites can be found
on the Web which reference Pente. The familiar Pente tube can still be found
at stores that sell games.
However, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the game, and presumably also
to increase sales of the game, Decipher has packaged a new boxed set 20th
Anniversary version of the game with a rigid game board and four sets of
playing stones instead of two. They also sponsored a series of tournaments
culminating in the 20th Anniversary Championship held October 17th in
Oklahoma City at a restaurant owned by the game's inventor, Gary Gabrel.
The 20th Anniversary Championship was the first major tournament since the
1983 World Championship and a number of world-class players vied for
first-place. Two former world champions played in the tournament, Tom
Braunlich and Rollie Tesh. Tom Braunlich is the author of several books on
Pente strategy and was the 1979, 1980 and 1981 world champion. Rollie Tesh
was the 1983 world champion. However, first-place in the tournament was
captured by Bodo Konze of Austin, Texas, who had qualified by earlier
winning the Austin City championship and the Tulsa championship. Konze won
13 of 16 games that he played at the finals, beating both Braunlich and Tesh
three games out of four. Because of the inherent advantage enjoyed by the
player who moves first in Pente, the tournament's rules required that a
player must win a match by two games.
It can only be hoped that Decipher and/or Parker Brothers will continue to
sponsor tournaments and promote the game of Pente. If you would like to play
Pente in a tournament, you should contact Decipher and let them know of your
interest. Their Web site is found at www.decipher.com and you can find a
list of folks to contact at
http://www.decipher.com/insidedecipher/contactingdecipher/index.html .
Information about Pente, and the 20th Anniversary Edition of the game can be
found in the "East Wing" of Decipher’s site at
http://www.decipher.com/eastwing/pente/index.htm .
Good gaming,
Jeff