Five in a Row

Five-in-a-Row is a simple game.

• Take turns placing stones onto a grid.
• Black places a stone, then white, then black…
• Place five stones in a row and you’ve won.
  • (Winning rows may be diagonal.)

¶ Variants

¶ Connect6

• Black starts by placing 1 stone.
• After that, players alternate placing two stones at a time.
• 6 in a Row is required to win.

¶ Yavalax

• Black starts by placing 1 stone.
• After that, players alternate placing two stones at a time.
• To win, make two simultaneous 4-in-a-rows.
• You can never make a 4-in-a-row unless you make two simultaneously.
• You can never make a 5-in-a-row.

¶ Pente

• Pairs of stones can be captured by capping them on either end.
  • EG XOOX results in the two O pieces being captured.
  • Exactly two stones are captured. Longer or shorter lines are safe.
  • Remove captured pieces from the board.
  • You can place stones back in the empty space without getting them captured.
    • EG Placing an O in XO_X is safe.
• You win with either a five-in-a-row or five captures (ten captured stones).

¶ Connect 4

Connect 4 is played with a vertical “board”, such that pieces fall to the bottom. but can also easily be played on an actual flat board.

• Designate one side of the board as “bottom”.
• Placed pieces are ‘dropped’ to the bottom-most empty row within their column.
• You win with four-in-row, checked only after pieces have ‘settled’.

See also this variant with 4-way gravity.

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