Gary Gabrel invented Pente while working as a dishwasher at Hideaway Pizza, in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Pente was based on the Japanese game Ninuki-Renju, a variant of renju that is played on the intersections of a 15x15 board with white and black stones. Like Ninuki-Renju"," Pente allows captures of pairs, but changed Ninuki Renju's complex opening rules and first player restrictions, such as requiring exactly five stones in a row to win, and restricting the player from forming open double threes and fours. The name Pente (πέντε) comes from the word for "five" in Greek, a reference to the win conditions of getting five in a row or making five captures.