About 5Row

5Row is an online five-in-a-row game — Gomoku, known in Vietnam as Caro — built mobile-first. You play on a 19x15 board against other players, friends or the computer, and climb an ELO ladder.

What you can do

• Play a ranked match against a matched opponent
• Create a private room and invite a friend with a room code
• Practise against a computer opponent at three difficulty levels
• Watch live matches from the Live TV lobby
• Browse coin rooms and check entry and prize pool before joining
• Track your rating on the leaderboard

How matches work

Online matches are played in real time. The server referees every game: it checks each move, detects five in a row and the two-end rule, runs the move clock, and records results and ratings. Practice games against the computer run in your browser. The exact rules are on the rules page.

Every visitor gets a guest account automatically, so you can play straight away. Coins are an in-game currency earned by playing; 5Row does not take real-money payments.

Guides and editorial

The Gomoku guides on this site are written by the 5Row team. Rule descriptions are checked against how matches actually work on 5Row, and where our rules differ from other rule sets — the two-end rule, for example — the guides say so. Each guide shows when it was published and, if it has been revised, when it was updated.

Languages

The interface is available in 5 languages: English, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Japanese. You choose one on your first visit and can change it at any time from Settings.

5Row was previously called CARO Arena.

Achievement pictures are Twemoji graphics, © Twitter, Inc and other contributors, used under CC-BY 4.0.