Board Games Like Gomoku: Four Two-Player Picks Worth Owning

There is a very specific pleasure in gomoku: two players, one grid, no luck, and a threat that builds quietly for six moves before anyone notices it. Games that share that feeling are not a long list. They are, however, a list with some excellent entries.

Here are four worth owning, what each one changes about the formula, and an honest note on which to buy first.

What gomoku actually gives you

Before comparing, it is worth being precise about what the game does well, because that is the itch you are trying to scratch. Gomoku is a placement game with no randomness and no movement: pieces go down once and stay. Winning is about creating two threats at once so that your opponent can only answer one. There is no luck, no hidden information and no resource management — it is pure structure.

The four games below keep most of that and change one variable each.

Pente: gomoku plus captures

Pente is the closest relative on this list and the most direct answer to "I want more gomoku". The board is 19×19, five in a row wins, and the addition is capture: place two of your stones so they flank exactly two of your opponent's, and those two are removed and kept as score. Win by five in a row, or by capturing five pairs.

That single rule changes the game enormously. Threat-building is no longer free, because a line that gets too crowded can be eaten. It rewards patience and the ability to see captures forming several moves out, and it makes the game considerably harder to play well. If you are already comfortable with advanced gomoku strategy, Pente is the natural next step.

Connect Four: the same idea, with gravity

Connect Four keeps the "line up four" objective and adds gravity: pieces drop to the lowest available space in a column, which removes free placement and with it a huge amount of freedom. That makes it dramatically easier to teach and to play badly well.

It is on this list for one reason: it is the fastest game here to get a complete beginner to a real game. A child, a grandparent or a sceptical colleague will all play Connect Four in under a minute without being taught anything. Once they are hooked on the shape of the threat, gomoku is an easy sell. The full comparison is here.

Othello (Reversi): placing becomes flipping

Othello keeps the grid and the alternation but changes what a move does. You place a stone that traps a line of your opponent's stones between two of yours, and those trapped stones flip to your colour. Control of the board is therefore temporary, and the score swings violently.

If gomoku scratches an itch about building permanent structure, Othello scratches the opposite one: it is about timing, sacrifice and flipping the whole board in the last few moves. The two make an unusually good pair for the same shelf because they reward completely different instincts.

Go (Weiqi): the deep end

Go is not really "like gomoku" — the objective is territory, not lines — but it shares the placement-only, no-luck, two-player structure, and it is the game gomoku players graduate to when they want more room to think. It is also the one whose board you may already own: a 19×19 Go board plays gomoku perfectly well.

The honest warning is difficulty. Go has a far steeper learning curve, and the first twenty games feel like guessing. The honest reward is that it is the deepest of the four by a wide margin, and the one people still improve at after thirty years.

Which to buy first

Order by what you actually want. More gomoku, with teeth, goes to Pente. A game to teach other people goes to Connect Four. A change of instinct goes to Othello. A long-term hobby goes to Go.

Games we would skip

Worth naming, because they come up in the same searches. Tic-tac-toe variants are solved and stay solved; the extra squares do not add depth. Large "mega" party line-up games are a different genre — fun, but they will not scratch a gomoku itch. And any game that adds dice to a line-up objective removes the one thing that makes gomoku satisfying, which is that the result is entirely yours.

If you only own one set

Buy a 19×19 board and a full stone set. That single purchase plays Go, Pente and gomoku, and a 15×15 grid printed on the reverse of many boards gives you the standard renju board as well. It is the highest-value object on this entire list.

The bottom line

Pente for depth, Connect Four for teaching, Othello for a completely different instinct, Go for a lifetime. All four are two-player, luck-free and cheap to own — and all four will make you better at the others.