==> competition/games/go-moku.s <== Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy's _Winning_Ways_ reports proof that the maximum k is between 4 and 7 inclusive, and it appears to be 5 or 6. They report: . 4-in-a-row is a draw on a 5x5 board (C. Y. Lee), but not on a 4x30 board (C. Lustenberger). . N-in-a-row is shown to be a draw on a NxN board for N>4, using a general pairing technique devised by A. W. Hales and R. I. Jewett. . 9-in-a-row is a draw even on an infinite board, a 1954 result of H. O. Pollak and C. E. Shannon. . More recently, the pseudonymous group T. G. L. Zetters showed that 8-in-a-row is a draw on an infinite board, and have made some progress on showing infinite 7-in-a-row to be a draw. Go-moku is 5-in-a-row played on a 19x19 go board. It is apparently a win for the first player, and so the Japanese have introduced several 'handicaps' for the first player (e.g., he must win with _exactly_ five: 6-in-a-row doesn't count), but apparently the game is still a win for the first player. None of these apparent results have been proven.