Gomoku · History
A game born on the Go board
Because it needs nothing more than a Go board and stones, five-in-a-row has been played across East Asia for centuries. In China it is called wǔzǐqí (五子棋); in Japan similar games are said to date back to the Heian period.
Gomoku and Renju
The name Gomoku comes from the Japanese “gomoku narabe” (五目並べ), popular in the Meiji era. Players soon noticed that Black’s first-move advantage was too strong, and around 1899 restrictions were added, creating Renju (連珠). The Renju International Federation now runs world championships.
A solved game
In the 1990s computer analysis proved that in free-style Gomoku on a 15×15 board Black wins with perfect play. Tournaments therefore balance the game with restrictions and opening rules — yet between humans, reading and intuition still decide most games.
Five in a row today
From school notebooks to online portals, five-in-a-row is one of the most widely known abstract games in Korea, China and Japan, and it has spread worldwide as Gomoku, Gobang and Five in a Row.