Each player drops a piece on an empty cell on their turn. There are two ways to win: either by forming a straight line of 5 or more pieces (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), or by capturing 10 of your opponent's pieces. Captures occur when you play a piece so that two opposing pieces are "trapped" between the new piece and another of your pieces. (That is, if a line of pieces looks like XOO and you play an X at the end, the two O pieces would be captured). The scores next to the player names in the window indicate how many opposing pieces each player has captured.

There is a variation called "Keryo-Pente", where groups of either 2 or 3 pieces can be captured. In this variation you must capture 15 opposing pieces to win instead of 10. (You can still win by creating a line of 5 of your pieces).

More detailed information about Pente is available at pente.org.


Player 2 (blue) is threatening to capture the two red pieces. Player 1 can avoid this by playing at the green circle, which will extend the group to three and make it safe from capture. (This would not work in the Keryo-Pente variation, because the group of three could be captured as well). Alternatively, she could play at one of the purple circles. Then when player 2 captures the red pieces, she could play at the other purple circle and capture the two blue pieces in response.


Player 2 (blue) can force a capture by playing at the highlighted cell. This creates a diagonal line of 3 blue pieces (indicated by green circles), which player 1 must block in order to survive. (Otherwise player 2 will extend the line to 4 pieces on his next move, and can't be prevented from making a line of 5). After player 1 blocks the line, player 2 can capture two red pieces by playing at the purple circle.