Victor Allis's proof that free gomoku is a win for the first player: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~victor/thesis.html > Wágner, J. and Virág, I. (2001). Solving Renju. ICGA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 30-35. I haven't read this one, but you should ask virag, he is a player here! -Mark