You 0/5
AI 0/5
Five in a row — but flank an enemy pair to snatch it off the board. Win by a line of five or by capturing five pairs.
A 13×13 board starts empty. You are black, the AI is white. Black moves first; tap any empty point to place a stone, and the AI replies in white.
There are two ways to win the round. The first is the classic one: line up five of your stones in a row — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
The second is capture. Whenever you bracket EXACTLY two of the opponent's stones between two of yours in a straight line (your stone, enemy, enemy, your stone), those two enemy stones are lifted off the board at once. Capture five pairs and you win immediately. The capture counters under the score show both sides' progress toward five.
Only pairs are captured — a lone stone or a run of three is safe. And moving INTO the gap between two enemy stones is never suicide; a pair is only taken when the opponent closes the bracket.
A round win adds 1 to your streak and deals a fresh board. A loss ends the game. The AI sharpens as your streak grows. Goal: longest winning streak.
Pente rewards the player who thinks about captures both ways at once. Every time you make a pair — two of your stones touching in a line — check whether an enemy stone already sits just outside one end, because then a single enemy move on the far side snatches both. The safest way to extend is to back a pair against the board edge or against one of your own stones, so the bracket can never be completed. When the AI leaves a loose pair, pounce: a capture not only nets a point toward the five-pair win, it tears a hole in the line the AI was building.
The deepest trick is the capture-defended threat. Because a five-in-a-row can be set up and then protected by the fact that breaking it would expose the breaker to a capture, strong play weaves the two win conditions together rather than chasing them separately. Watch the diagonals — they are where both forks and captures are missed most — and never block an open three by forming a fresh capturable pair, or you solve one problem and hand over another. Early on, fight for the centre where lines and brackets run in every direction; later, count to five on both your row threats and your pair tally and push whichever the AI is guarding least.