Pente proves fashionable
s
Backgammon look out
What board game is the insider's favorite to outsell Monopoly,
Scrabble, Life and all the other classics in the next three months?
Pente
Pente? If you haven't heard of it, no doubt you soon will The
Americanized version of an ancient oriental game, Pente (pron
ounced Pen-tay) is replacing backgammon in fashionable areas of
the Southwest and is spreading north and west quickly as the
lucrative Christmas season draws near
"Four years ago, a chess-playing friend in Oklahoma showed it
to me," says Tom Braunlich, then a journalism-philosophy major at
Oklahoma State "My first reaction was that it was so easy, it
wouldn’t amount to much I soon changed my mind."
Changed his mind so much, in fact, that Braunlich now has two
Pente world championships and has authored the only two existing
strategy books on Pente — cleverly titled Pente Strategy Number
One and Pente Strategy Number Two
Braunlich was in Eugene this week in the course of a 12-city
promotional tour through Western states He autographed copies
of his book at Parlour Games, where Pente accounted for an
astonishing $8,000 in revenue during the 1981 Christmas season,
according to Pente District Manager Frank Miller
Braunlich, now 24, says his first book sold 100,000 copies
Based on the ancient oriental game of GO, game sellers predict
Pente, the newest in "gorgeous games, ” will corner the market
"From what I’ve heard, the
best selling backgammon book
sold 125,000 copies,” he says
"At the time (the book was writ
ten) it was all we knew about the
game It's not like chess where
you have 500 years of literature
to back you up ”
The comparison to backgam
mon isn't accidental
An advertising brochure de
scribes Pente in this manner:
"In minutes, you can learn, play
and win Pente's subtle objec
tives — to get five stones in a
row or to make five captures —
mask an intriguing game that
grows in complexity with the
interest and skill of the player.”
"Pente on the surface is a
very tranquil game," says
Braunlich "But it quickly
becomes cutthroat ”
"It does have a lot of similarity
with backgammon. It's quick
and easy to learn It fits in very
well with the nightclub-type at
mosphere. Many people think
that it will be the game of the
80s just like backgammon was
the game of the 70s.”
Pente is a descendant of the
ancient oriental game of GO,
which is believed to be one of
the oldest games in the world.
But, as Braunlich notes, the
oriental version was not active
enough to captivate an Amer
ican audience
"It's like the difference in
thinking of the East and the
West," says Braunlich "Martial
arts attacks are very subtle,
where you use the opponent s
weight against him. On the other
hand, boxing in the West is very
straightforward — attack and
punch."
So, the game is a mixture of
America and the Orient. Then
why is Pente, which is the Greek
word for five, marketed with like
nesses ot Achilles and Ajax?
"At the time this game was
coming out, it was the end of the
Vietnam war," says Braunlich
"Anything oriental was very
bad ”
While video-games seem to
be drawing huge amounts of
r
revenue from other forms of entertainment, Braunlich says Rente
will survive
‘'Sure, computers are great fun But the real reason we II
always need to play board games is that it provides a social
interaction you can't get with video games ''
Pente boards sell for as little as $15, but it is clear that the new
company is directing its brash marketing campaign towards
upper-middle class, college-educated clientele
Story by Sean Meyers
Photos by Bob Baker
m m mr mm
Tom Braunlich contemplates the Rente board, field of his two world
championships Braunlich was in Eugene this week to promote his
second strategy book
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