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Parker Brothers took over the game in 1984 and did not sponsor any further world championships.
Also, Rollie Tesh is still the official world champion, not Bodo Konze. Bodo deservedly won the 20th anniversary tournament, and might be considered the best player in the world at this moment, but that tournament was a promotional event and shouldn't be confused with a serious event for the official title. There has been some talk of trying to arrange a match between Konze and Tesh at some time in the future, but such does not look likely.
In 1978, Gary Gabrel simplified the rules of Ninuki-renju, a variant of 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.
Information about Pente, and the 20th Anniversary Edition of the game can be found in the "Partyzone" of Decipher’s site.
(Updated May 6, 2004) Good news on this front Winning Moves is producing a new version of the game in a box, here is their
Pente Page.
Ebay is still always an option, this category had most of the sets, and here is a basic search for the word "pente".
World Champs
20th Anniversary Tournament
Where to Buy
Here is a list of some pente links I have found around the 'Net...
Pente World Champions
...thanks for the info by Tom Braunlich
20th Anniversary Tournament
...thanks to Jeffery L. Graves for sending me this information
Where to buy...
