Five-in-a-row, Renju

Renju, as the game is known in Japanese or Lianzhu in Chinese, is a modified and improved version of the ancient game of Five-in-a-Row, also known by its Japanese name of Gomoku. The reason it was necessary to modify the basic game of Five-in-a-Row is that in the traditional game, the player of the first move has such a big advantage that he will win every, or almost every, game. Therefore, in order to give the second player a fair chance to win, restrictions have been placed on the first player.