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University Daily Kansan, October 26, 1982
Entertainment
Pente to be board game of'80s,says national champ
Staff Reporter
The board game of the 1800s will be Pente, an adaptation of an Oriental game by an Oklahoma college student, a former national champion of the game said recently.
Tom Braunlich, who won the 1979 and the 1980-81 national Pente championships and has written two books about the game, said the simple rules and fast pace of Pente would help ensure its popularity. Braunlich was in Topeka on a recent promotional tour.
Locally, the game has maintained its popularity, according to Mike Kirsch, owner of Gammon's, 1601 W. 32rd. Gammon's, a nighttime ninety-five pente boards to entertain patrons.
In addition, Student Union Activities will sponsor a one-night Pente tournament next month for interested KU students.
However, a KU student who placed 20th of the 36 participants in the national Pente tournament in Dallas said he played infrequently new, but would enter to the tournament competition again.
"It kind of lost its thrill." Brian Baker, Leawood sophomore, said recently.
Baker said he began playing Pente about a year ago when his roommate showed him the game.
"I started playing, and we played all the time," he said.
The game Pente, although its name is derived from the Greek word for five, comes from two ancient Oriental board games. GO and Go-Moku
Pente was designed in 1973 by Gary Gabrel.
then a sociology major at Oklahoma State University. Some of his friends showed him the two Oriental games, which he synthesized to emphasize simplicity, speed and strategy, according to Pente's promotions. In 1977 he began to market the boards in Stillwater, Okla.
The name Pente was chosen because of the object of the game and the picture on the game board of the Greek heroes Achilles and Ajax, promotions said.
A player wins the game, which two or four people can play, when he captures five pairs of the opponent's playing pieces, called stones, or an opponent's ball. In football, owing vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
Baker said the Dallas tournament, which was sponsored by Pente Games Inc., was "a really neat thing. I'm most certainly going to participate next year."
Baker's roommate, Bryan Haas, Shawnee Mission sophomore, said he was introduced about a year and a half ago to the game by his family. He in turn showed the game to Baker, and each of them won an SUA-sponsored Pente tournament last year.
"It's fair to say we've dominated Pente on campus," he said.
Haas said Pente resembled tick-tack-toe but had the difficulty of chess.
"There's no luck involved," he said. "When you lose, it's because the other player played a superior game. You can't curse the dice."
Baker won the tournament last February at Gammon's that selected a local Penet player to compete in the national championships.
Kirsch said he had helped sponsor another Pente tournament in late summer 1890.
"Although people like to play in Lawrence," he said, "I haven't found much of a competitive interest."
Kirsch said his club, which was named after the game backgammon, was designed when it opened in 1880 to include both backgammon and Pente boards to entertain customers.
Although Pentе was virtually unknown in Lawrence in 1980, he said, the game soon caught on with local residents and has stayed popular
"Popular people."
"As people played and told their friends about
it, word spread," Kirsch said.
Campus Penet players will have a chance soon to match their skills.
SUA sponsored four tournaments last year, he
Chris Orlando, who is in charge of scheduling tournations for SUA, said SUA's next Pente tournament would start at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 11 in the Trail Room of the Kansas Union.
SUA sponsored four tournaments last year, he said, and about 30 people participated each time. Braulich said the appeal of Pente was its rules and pace.
"Just about anybody can instantly relate to it and enjoy it." Braunlich said. "It just fits our way of life nowadays so very well."
A person needs only a few minutes to learn Pente, he said, and a game lasts about 15 minutes, even among good players.
"The tension between the two players positively can't go on indefinitely," he said.
Braulich said Pente differed from many board games in having players add pieces to the board game progressed. In other games, players have had no number of pieces or try to eliminate pieces, he said.
Braunlich said he became interested in Pente when he was a student at Oklahoma State university in the late 1970s.
Dave Homer Kramer
Though it is based on Oriental board games, the name is Pente, the Greek word meaning five. The board shows Achilles and Ajax, heroes of Greek myths, and the game's name reflects its object, to place five playing pieces in a row. Pente players describe the game as easy to learn but challenging.
Blues singer Al Collins takes his act to the streets
By SUSAN O'CONNELL
Staff Reporter
Albert Collins is taking his music to the streets.
Collins, an award-winning blues musician, was in concert last night with his band, the icebreakers, at the Lawrence Opera House, 2 E. 7th St.
But he did not stay in the Opera House.
Uppsala House. "I'm going out to Mass." Street, he said after playing a half an hour.
He did.
He continued to play his guitar, a 1961 Fender Telecaster with an extra-long cord, as he walked off the stage, through the crowd to meet people and, finally, into the street.
He stayed a few minutes on the sidewalk, talking to about 50 members of the audience who followed him out, clapping to a beat, and through a window to people at a nearby bus station.
He got the idea about wandering off the stage from B. J. McNille, a saxophone player, he said. He play to some individuals at the bar. We'll have them all that time, I will be playing," he said recently.
He gives his audience a show with a personalized touch at every concert, he said.
"I use it to get close to the audience. I like a lot of entertainment."
The Opera House audience was entertained. Forty people danced and clipped to his music. They gave him beer when he stopped by their tables. When he had a hand free, they shock it.
MUNCIES
Collis said he was knocked by many nick-names. One is "The Master of the Telescopes."
Because people enjoy his interacting, he said,
he does it at every performance.
indeed, he moves his guitar to the beat of
the band's electricifying by he plays
a chord in C major. Another nickname is
the victim.
Case Jones, the drummer of Icebreakers, introduced Collins. He said, "He is called the razor blade man because he cuts so deep into your soul."
Collins said that in addition to his off-the-stage novelties, he is a storyteller. In his song, he is called *Collins*, he tells of times when his wife goes on a trip to a Friend and leaves him to take care of the kids.
— a lot of things, including losing a job, and being without money and food. The other two songs were "Listen Here" and "I Got that Feeling."
Collins has won many major blues awards in his 20 years of recording, he said.
He said his "Ice Pickin'" album won the Best Blues Albums of 1979 Award from the Monteau Jazz Festival." "Prostibite," released in 1980, was named the best blues record of the year by the Village Voice, and his latest album, recorded live in 1981, "Frozen Alive!" was his third Grammy-nominated album.
Memphis' Blues Foundation named him "Contemporary Male Blues Artist of the Year" in 1980 and 1981.
He played only three songs in his first set.
One, "Mercy," was about things going wrong
CAMPUS CRUSADE FOR CHRIST will make a 4 ppm. in the Big Eight Room of the
CAMPUS CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP'S BIBLE study and fellowship will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Union.
DISCUSSION, "Hazardous Waste Disposal," will be at noon in 305 Satellite Union.
PRE-MED CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Council Room of the Union.
TODAY
PUBLIC RELATIONS STUDENT Society of America will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the Union.
Boyds Coins-Antiques
Class Clips
Boyds Celluloid
751 Gold-Silver Coins
New Hampshire Watchs
Univerrance, 6604 NA
983-82773
CATHOLIC CENTER WORSHIP will be at 12:30 p.m. in Danforth Chapel.
THE CASTLE
TEA ROOM
1307 Mass. phone: 843-1151
CARDS & GIFTS
... for all occasions
BROOKLYN HOTWITS
Southwest Plaza 239 & I love
841-290-7655
10-5 Bat
It's a Fact Representative Betty Jo Charlton knows the people of Lawrence
Let's Re-Elect YOUR State Representative:
Berty Jo has been a humane resident, resident and lawyer of Lawrence for over 35 years. She is an expert legal experience; three in charge of the House of Representatives.
Betty Jo earned a Masters degree in Political Science at K.U.
Paid for by the committee to ReElect Betty Jo Charlton, Bill Craven, Treasurer
Bertie Jo is married to businessman Robert Bertay, Charlson/Manhattan Insurance Company. The Charlons have two sons, Bruce and John, who are also K.U. alumni.
Spring Rush
There will be a Rush informational meeting for any women interested in participating in the Formal Spring Membership program.
- Talk to women in Sororities
- Pick-up registration materials
- Question and Answer session
Thursday, October 28th 7:00 p.m. Kansas Union Ballroom
sponsored by the K.U. Panhellenic Association
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