What Is Gomoku? A Beginner's Guide to Five in a Row

Gomoku is a two-player strategy game in which players take turns placing stones on a grid. The first player to make an unbroken line of five of their own stones — horizontally, vertically or diagonally — wins. Nothing is captured and nothing moves once it is placed, so the whole game is about where you put the next stone.

That is the entire objective. The depth comes from the fact that every stone you place is both an attack and a block.

Gomoku in one minute

• Players: two. One plays the first colour (Black in traditional Gomoku), the other plays second (White).
• Equipment: a grid and two sets of markers. Traditionally that means Go stones on a Go board; on paper or online it is often X and O in squares.
• A turn: place one stone on any empty point. Then your opponent does the same.
• The goal: five of your stones in a straight, unbroken line.
• The end: the first five wins. If the board fills up with no five, the game is a draw.

If you want the exact wording, including the edge cases, the complete Gomoku rules cover everything.

Why it's called five in a row

"Gomoku" comes from the Japanese name gomokunarabe (五目並べ): go means five, moku is a counter word for pieces, and narabe means to line up. "Five in a row" is simply the English description of the same idea.

The game travels under several names. Korean players call it omok, Chinese players wuziqi (五子棋), and in Vietnam it is known as caro. Older English books sometimes use gobang. The names overlap with slightly different house rules, which is why it is worth checking the rule set before a serious game.

The goal: five stones in a line

A winning line has to be five stones of the same colour, next to each other, with no gaps and no opposing stone inside it. It can run in any of four directions: along a row, down a column, or along either diagonal.

Four stones with a gap — X X _ X X — is not five. The gap has to be filled first, and your opponent gets a move before that happens.

The board and the stones

Traditional Gomoku is played with Go equipment: black and white stones placed on the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares. Today the usual competitive board is 15×15; in the past the full 19×19 Go board was the norm.

Paper and online versions often place marks inside squares instead. That changes nothing about the rules. What matters is how many playable points there are, because a bigger board gives both players more room to attack and escape. The guide to Gomoku board sizes explains what actually changes between 15×15, 19×19 and wider boards.

How a turn works

Black moves first, then the players alternate. On your turn you place exactly one stone on any empty point. Stones are never moved, flipped or removed, so the board only ever fills up.

That permanence is what makes the game feel different from chess or checkers. A bad stone stays bad. A good one keeps working for the rest of the game, because it can become part of several lines at once.

Why it is easy to learn but hard to master

You can explain the rules to someone in under a minute. Winning consistently takes much longer to learn, for three reasons.

Threats force replies. Once a player has four in a row with an open end, the opponent must block it or lose. Even three in a row with both ends open usually demands an answer. Much of the game is about who gets to make those demands and who has to keep answering them.

One move can make two threats. Your opponent places one stone per turn. If a single stone of yours creates two separate ways to make five, they can only stop one. That idea — the double threat — is behind most wins, and spotting it a move or two early is the real skill.

Moving first is an advantage. The first player starts one stone ahead in every race. Computer analysis by Victor Allis in 1994 showed that, on a 15×15 board with five or more in a row winning, the first player can force a win with perfect play. Humans do not play perfectly, so this rarely decides a casual game, but it is the reason several rule variants exist. Renju, for example, restricts some of Black's moves.

Gomoku and its relatives

Gomoku belongs to a family of "connection" games where the aim is to line pieces up.

• Tic-tac-toe is the tiny version: three in a row on a 3×3 grid. With sensible play it always ends in a draw, which is why it stays a children's game.
• Connect Four uses gravity: pieces drop to the lowest free slot in a column, and four in a row wins.
• Renju is Gomoku with restrictions on the first player and a formal opening procedure, designed for balanced competitive play.
• Caro is the Vietnamese name for five in a row, often played with a rule that a five blocked at both ends does not count. Our Caro vs Gomoku comparison goes through the differences.
• Pente adds captures, and Connect6 asks for six in a row with two stones per turn.

If you have played any of these, Gomoku will feel familiar within a few moves — but the bigger board and the five-stone target make long-range planning matter much more than in tic-tac-toe or Connect Four.

How to start playing

1. Learn the core rules. They fit on an index card: alternate stones, five in a row wins.
2. Play a game against the computer. You will learn more from five quick games than from an hour of reading, mostly by losing to threats you did not see.
3. Read one guide on the basics. How to play Gomoku walks through a full beginner game move by move, including the moment it was decided.
4. Then play people. Human opponents make different mistakes from a computer, and that is where your judgement improves fastest.

On 5Row: the board has 19 columns and 15 rows of squares, X moves first, and five or more in a row wins. The two-end rule is on by default: an exact five blocked at both ends does not count. You can play against the computer at three difficulty levels or against other players from the home screen.

What to read next

Gomoku is easiest to learn in order. Follow these guides from top to bottom:

1. Gomoku rules — the complete rule set and the main variants.
2. How to play Gomoku — your first game, step by step.
3. Gomoku board size — 15×15, 19×19 and what changes.
4. Gomoku strategy — the principles behind good moves.

FAQ

Is Gomoku the same as Go?

No. They often share the same board and stones, but they are different games. Go is about surrounding territory and capturing stones; Gomoku is a race to line up five, with no captures at all.

Is Gomoku just a bigger tic-tac-toe?

The idea is similar, but the scale changes the game. On a 3×3 grid every possibility can be seen at a glance, and good play always draws. On a 15×15 or larger board you have to plan several moves ahead, and games are usually decided by double threats rather than by running out of space.

Is Gomoku a solved game?

The freestyle version on a 15×15 board was shown in 1994 to be a first-player win with perfect play. That proof relies on computer search no human can reproduce over the board, so for real players the game remains wide open.

How long does a game take?

Usually a few minutes. Most games end long before the board fills up. On 5Row each move has its own clock, so a game cannot stall while one player thinks.