1、 RENJU FOR BEGINNERSwritten by Mr. Alexander NOSOVSKY and Mr. Andrey SOKOLSKYNEW REVISED EDITION19994 9 2 8 61 X 7Y 3 510PREFACEThis excellent book on Renju for beginners written by Mr Alexander Nosovsky and Mr Andrey Sokolsky was the first reference book for the former USSR players for a long time.
2、 As President of the RIF (The Renju International Federation) I am very glad that I can introduce this book to all the players around the world.Jonkoping, January 1990Tommy MaltellPresident of RIFPREFACE BY THE AUTHORSThe rules of this game are much simpler, than the rules of many other logical game
3、s, and even children of kindergarten age can study a simple variation of it. However, Renju does not yield anything in the number of combinations, richness in tactical and strategical ideas, and, finally, in the unexpectedness and beauty of victories to the more popular chess and checkers.A lot of p
4、eople know a simple variation of this game (called “five-in-a-row“) as a fascinating method to spend their free time. Renju, in its modern variation, with simple winnings prohibited for Black (fouls 3x3, 4x4 and overline ) becomes beyond recognition a serious logical-mind game.Alexander Nosovsky Vic
5、e-president of RIFFormer two-times World Champion in Renju by mail.Andrey SokolskyFormer vice-president of RIF . CONTENTSCHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.1 The Rules of Renju . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.2 From the History and Geography of Renju . . . . . .
6、 . . . .CHAPTER 2. TERMS AND DEFINITIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Accessories of the game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.2 Simple structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.3 Forks and fouls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CHAPTER 3. PRINCIPLES OF TACTICS IN RENJU
7、. . . . . . . . 3.1 A forced attack at the end of the game . . . . . . . . . .3.2 The art of Pause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3.3 Methods of Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3.4 Advice to a beginner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CHAPTER 4. OPENINGS IN RENJU . . . .
8、 . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.1.1 The Rules of Renju.The present text is meant for the beginners. The authors hope though, that advanced players will also find something interesting here.Why is this game so attractive?Firs
9、t of all, the game has very simple rules: it seems very easy to build five-in-a-row. The unpretentious equipment (it is even possible to play with a pen on a sheet of paper) also does much to capture the hearts of people of different ages and professions. But as far as studying the game goes, it ope
10、ns new and unxpected situations. - “There is nothing simpler, than this game“,- a beginner will exclain after playing a few games. - “Nothing more complicated“,- a master would say.And he will be as much right. In fact, to study how to make moves is much simpler in Renju than in many other logical g
11、ames. Little by little, studying the richness of the game, one will see for himself, that in subtlety Renju does not yield anything to any other logical game. Sudden changes of situations, multimoveness, carefully calculated attacks and quick counterattacks, beauty of the final thrust - thats what a
12、ttracts a mature master in Renju.In short, rules of Renju are:1. Two players, one after another place stones of white and black color on the intersections of an empty game-board, which consists of 15 horizontal and 15 vertical lines. Black makes the first move beginning from the middle of the board
13、(stones must be placed on the INTERSECTIONS!).2. The winning player is the one, who builds the first “five-in-a-row“ (an unbroken horizontal, vertical or diagonal line with 5 stones of the same color).3. A game is considered a draw, if the players think, that there can be no winner or loser (e.g. th
14、e board is full of stones). Any player, unable to make a move, can refuse to place a stone on the board. If both players refuse to place their stones one after another, the game also ends in a draw.4. Since Black begins the game it is not allowed to build with one move at least two “Threes“, or “Fou
15、rs“, or an “Overline“ (that is, a line of more than 5 stones) under the penalty of defeat. This prohibition is called a Foul in Renju.5. White does not have prohibited moves. White can build an Overline and win. The exact definition and explanation of terms will be given in the next chapter.1.2 From
16、 the History and Geography of Renju.Renju first appeared in its simple variation, without fouls for Black. Practically in its first variation, Renju exists all over the world. There are a lot of names all over the world,You able to search it at Hotbot in Internet Go-moku, Gobang, Omok, WuZiQi, Conne
17、ct5, piskvorky, noughts no matter how skilfully he plays and defends. This situation is explained by the inevitable for all logical games “rule of the first move“, which is Black. An idea to get over the threading crisis of the game (the apogee of it was in the middle of the twenties this century),
18、restricting the prohibitions for Black, had appeared. Very quickly an agreement was reached to restrict the board - first to 19x19 (like in Go), and then to 15x15. There were attempts to restrict the third move for Black, making it outside the 5x5 square. However, all these experiments, did not pass
19、 the test of time. Then players approached the problem from the other end, and forbade Black to make Forks 3x3. But it was also not enough. Finally, by the proposal of Meijin Rakusan Takaki the rules of fouls 3x3, 4x4, and overline were adopted which we now call Classic. The only Fork 4x3 remained f
20、or Black.A skilled player can ask a question: who will guarantee that all these complicated restrictions will suffice? Will anything new appear?It is possible to say for sure, that in the coming decades changes will not happen. Almost fifty years of experience along with the various regulations of m
21、odern rules, practically equalized the players chances.And one more argument for the Fouls: their introduction, quite unexpectedly for their creators, had sharply enriched the game tactically and added new quality to it. How beautiful and graceful White victories look with the help of forced Foul fo
22、r Black, whose victory seemed to be inevitable one move before it! Playing without Fouls.Thats why it is possible to say, that Renju, at least in Japan, had gone out of childhood of creation and revision of the rules, and became the beautiful time of adulthood. It is not necessary to repeat all exis
23、ting mistakes of the Japanese, where this game originated and was cultivated.And one more argument for the fouls: their introduction, maybe suddenly quite unexpectedly for their creators, had sharply enriced the game unexpectedly tactically and brought a new quality to the game.How beautiful and gra
24、ceful look Whites victories with the helpful of forced foul of Black, which victory seemed to be inevitable just one move before it! Playing without fouls.Thats why it is possible to say, that Renju, at least in Japan had went out of childhood of creation and revision of the rules, and come to the b
25、eautiful time of mature age. It is not necessary to repeat all mistakes of Japanese in the countries, where this wonderful game just become to cultivate.The modern Renju in the World is a young sports. The Renju International Federation was created in 1988 in Stokholm, Sweden. It organized two World
26、 Championships of Renju and Five-in-a-Row: First in Kyoto, Japan 1989 , Second in Moscow, Russia 1991. Third World Championship in Arjeplog, Sweden 1993. 4-th in Tallin, Estonia 1995, 5-th in Sankt-Peterburg 1997, 6-th was in Beijing, China 1999, and 7-th will be in Kyoto, Japan 2001.This book was w
27、ritten in 1984 , but now, in 1999, we shall add some good news for this new edition. There exists now a regular English issue of the RIF - “RENJU WORLD“ magazine - where Renju and Five-in-a-Row information is published. You can download last issues at http:/i.ee/renju/Other Five-in-a-Row and Renju b
28、ooks in English:1. “Five-in-a-row/Renju“ by Mr Goro Sakata A, D, E are 4x4 Forks; C, J are 4x3 Forks, I is a 3x3x4 fork, Bis a 4x4x3 Fork. The last two Forks have multiple 3, all others have2. One can notice, that the maximum possible multiples of a fork is 8(try to build it yourself!). By the rules
29、 of Renju all the shown Forkswith the exception of Forks C and J are prohibited to Black (fouls 3x3x. and 4x4x.) By prohibited Forks Black makes at least two Threes (forks G, H, I) or two Fours (forks A, D, B), and these Forks areFouls (i.e prohibited to Black).Note! It is necessary to be able to de
30、termine if a move is Fork or not, and to determine the type of Fork.Examples of moves shown in dia.6 only seem to be Forks. Move A isnot a 3x3 Fork, because one of the threats which compose it is false -a diagonal pseudothree. The same is true for moves B and F. The moveto E is not a 3x4 Fork becaus
31、e the horizontal group is not a Four (itcan only become an Overline not a Five). Finally, move C is not a prohibited 3x3x4 Fork, but a legitimate 3x4 Fork, because the resultingthree-stone diagonal group is just a pseudothree - it can become a Four only after a move to X, which itself is a prohibite
32、d 4x4 Fork.Note! In the definition of Three the words “.can be completed to straight Four by the only possible move“ mean, that this move is not Foul.Dia 6The moves, which only seem to be Fouls, are called Pseudofouls. Ondia.6 besides the move to C, Pseudofouls are also making a Three bymove D in th
33、e bottom right portion, although there is a Three alreadythere (on the fifth horizontal). The point is that these two Threes donot cross in the point D, which was the last move in this position, i.e. they do not make a Fork by a move to D.At the end of this chapter we will discuss some of the tactic
34、al questions, connected with the Foul, although, speaking strictly, thesequestions should be discussed in the next chapter given to tactics.The introduced rule of Foul for Black drastically cuts down hisopportunities for building winning combinations (Threats and Forks),and White gets another method
35、 of B FXCA EDfighting - which is to force a BlackFoul. Some of White Fours thus become straight Fours, from which, aswe have mentioned above, there is no defense. We will clarify this bythe examples of the moves on the dia.7.Dia 7After White moves to A (Four) Black is not allowed to make a moveto X,
36、 because this move for them is a Foul overline. The White move toB (making only a Three) also inevitably will lead them to victory, because X is a 3x3 Foul for Black. The White move to C (Four) is anotherwinning move, because of 4x4 Foul in the X. Finally, after a brilliantWhite move to D (not even
37、a Three but a Pseudothree), it is also timefor Black to resign, because both points X and Y are 3x3 Fouls. Allvictories like those ones Renju-players shortly call “victories by Foul“, although, of course, in any game, played to the Five, White winsonly by making Five or overline.So, how Black should
38、 defend against Whites intention to win by Foul? One must always keep in mind that changes in position (i.e. in external composition) make some prohibited moves legitimate. And Blackhas several different ways for such purposeful changing of the position.First, Black can simply occupy the point, with
39、 which White intendto win. For example, if it is Blacks turn to make a move he will occupy points A, C or B on dia.7, and thus destroy Whites threat. However, this method is not always helpful. For example, moves to points Cor D on the same diagram do not save them (White can adjust its structure fr
40、om the other side).Second, one can try to change the Fork type. For example, in thebottom left position on dia.8 White threatens to win by the 3x3 Foulin the point Z by making a move to A. With their right of move, it isenough for Black to make a move to one of the points marked A, and potential for
41、k Z will become not a 3x3 Fork, but a 4x3 Fork. However,what was said about the first method is also true with changing theFork type - it is not a universal method either (e.g. what is possiblein position B on dia.7 becomes impossible in positions A,C and D - tryto find the reason for that yourself!
42、)X XB CXY DXAThird, it is possible to try to get rid of the loosing 3x3 or 4x4Fork at all by changing it to a Pseudofoul. For example, in the samebottom left position on dia.8, the Blacks move to point B changes oneof the potential Threes to a Pseudothree (because it can only becomean Overline), and
43、, by the same token the loosing 3x3 Fork to a Pseudofoul. The move to G (made under Whites threat to make a move to C) inthe position shown in the upper left corner of dia.8 has the same meaning: it changes the loosing 3x3 Fork Z to a Pseudofoul, because thediagonal group of three stones created by
44、the move to Z could be completed to straight Four only by a move to X, which itself becomes a 4x4Foul.Dia 8One special case derived from this defensive method of Black, theso-called Reviving Three., is noteworthy. It is illustrated by the position in the bottom right corner on dia.8. Here White thre
45、atens tomove to point D and to make a Black 4x4 Foul in point Z. Black couldmake a move to D or get rid of Foul, by building a horizontal or avertical Four. However, in this particular position, Black contrivenot just to defend, but to win the whole game. To do that, Black should make a Three by a m
46、ove to D, which White will have to close. Meanwhile point Z stops being the Foul 4x4 Fork, because the vertical group can only become the Foul Overline now. So with his next move to ZBlack builds an unstopped straight Four - the initial horizontal Threehas been revived. There are also some other pos
47、sible means of escapinga Foul threat.And finally the last remark on the definition of Foul. A situationis possible, when one of the threats, contained in the Fork, is counteattacked by a White Four. Such a position, is shown in the upperright part of dia.8. Here You are tempted not to consider the f
48、orcedmove to X as a 3x3 Foul, because it looks like the resulting diagonalThree is countered by the Four in E, and after the forced answer ofBlack, their vertical Three is also countered. In reality the move Xis nevertheless a 3x3 Foul, because it creates two valid Threes andeach of them can become
49、a straight Four. The fact that White can defend this position (but does not have to!), matters not at all: Whites move is voluntary.The example of Pseudofouls given in this paragraph can be summed upin one main rule:G EY QX JB DA CA WAA Z AAFAThe best way to distinguish Fouls from Pseudofouls is simple: in case of Pseudofouls White can (but does not have to!) defend against all the threats contained in the fork one after another.This rule can be also applied when you determine the type and multiple of a Fork.After you get some experience, the rule of the Foul, which n