Gomoku rules
How this house plays, plus the international rules of gomoku and renju.
The international rules follow the official texts of the Renju International Federation (RIF), keeping only what matters at the board; clocks, referees and the like are left out.
Setting up a table
- The host picks how many in a row win — three to seven — and the board size.
- Five-in-a-row tables offer three rules: Freestyle (no forbidden moves) — five or more in a row wins; Standard (exactly five) — only exactly five wins, the same for both, as in international gomoku; Renju (forbidden moves) — as in international renju.
- With forbidden moves on, a black double three, double four or overline loses and a white overline wins; real, false and nested threes are all judged by RIF rule 9.3.
- By default black moves first and may open anywhere. Five-in-a-row tables can also use a swap opening: one player places black's first stone, the other then picks a color — a stone too strong just hands them black. Or Swap2, the opening used in international gomoku tournaments: one player places three stones (two black, one white); the other takes black, takes white, or adds one more of each and hands the choice back.
During a game
- You may take back one move, offer a draw or resign.
- Each move has a time limit; running out loses, as does leaving the room or staying disconnected too long.
- A full board is a draw.
After the game
- Replay steps through the game move by move.
- Game record makes a picture of the whole board with move numbers and coordinates, the code underneath — save it, share it, or paste the code into another board tool.
- Copy code gives the coordinates alone, for game-record software.