Mancala

Rules and how to play (Kalah)

The board has 6 pits on the near side and 6 pits on the far side, plus 1 store at each end. The 6 near pits and the store at the right end are yours, and the 6 far pits and the store at the left end are your opponent’s. At the start, each pit holds 4 stones and both stores are empty.

On your turn, choose one of your pits, pick up all the stones in it, and drop them one at a time into the following pits counterclockwise, starting with the pit to its right. This is called sowing. You also drop a stone into your own store, but you skip your opponent’s store. If the pit holds 13 or more stones, you go all the way around the board and also drop a stone into the pit you chose.

If the last stone lands in your store, you get an extra turn. There is no limit to the number of extra turns in a row.

If the last stone lands in an empty pit on your side and the opposite pit on your opponent’s side has stones, you capture those stones together with the last stone and put them in your store. If the opposite pit is empty, you capture nothing, and the last stone stays in that pit.

The game ends when, after a move, all 6 pits on either side are empty. The stones left in the pits then go into the store of the player whose side they are on. The player with more stones in their store wins. If both stores hold the same number, the game is a draw.

Controls on this page

First, choose your opponent and how to play in the panel to the right of the board (below it on narrow screens). With “Play vs computer”, you choose the computer’s strength from Easy, Medium, and Hard, and you play first. Pressing “Play second · Medium” below them lets the computer on Medium play first. “Play a friend (send a link)” creates a room for playing a friend, and “2 players on this device” lets 2 people take turns on one device.

On the 3D board, press one of the pits on your side to sow its stones. With a mouse, a single click makes the move. On phones and other touch devices, the first tap selects a pit, and tapping the same pit again makes the move. The numbers on the board show how many stones are in each pit and store.

Drag the board to rotate the view. Use the mouse wheel or pinch with 2 fingers to zoom in and out. Switch views with the “Angled” and “Top-down” buttons at the top right of the board. When you choose to play second against the computer, or when you play second in a game with a friend, the board is rotated so that your side is nearest to you.

The “Button controls” panel to the right of the board (below it on narrow screens) shows the 12 pits and 2 stores in the same positions as on the 3D board, with the number of stones in each. Pressing a pit button also makes a move, and the keyboard works as well. The pit chosen in the last move is marked in orange on both the board and the buttons.

During a game, you can use the “Play again”, “Undo move”, “Resign”, and “Change mode” buttons. “Play again” and “Undo move” are available only in games against the computer and games on this device. Against the computer, “Undo move” goes back to just before your last move and also takes back the computer’s moves after it.

To play a friend, press “Copy link” to copy the link shown and send it to your opponent (on phones and similar devices, you can also use “Share”). When your opponent opens the link and presses “Join”, the game starts. The host plays first, and the player who joined plays second. When a game ends, either player can press “Rematch (swap sides)” to start the next game. If your opponent stays disconnected for 2 minutes, you can press “Continue vs computer” to finish the game against the computer.

Strategy tips

• If you choose a pit whose number of stones equals its distance from your store, the last stone lands in your store and you get an extra turn. The pit just left of your store needs 1 stone, and the pit to the left of that needs 2. In the starting position, pit 3 from the left (4 stones) is such a pit.
• When 2 or more pits give you an extra turn, play the one closest to your store first. If you play a farther pit first, the stones you sow add 1 stone to the closer pit, and that pit no longer gives you an extra turn.
• When your opponent has many stones opposite an empty pit on your side, look for a move whose last stone lands in that empty pit. If you sow a pit with exactly 13 stones, you go once around the board and the last stone lands in the original pit, which is now empty. The opposite pit also receives 1 stone during the lap, so you always capture the opposite stones.
• When your opponent has an empty pit on their side, the stones in your pit opposite it may be captured. Count the stones in your opponent’s pits and check whether your opponent has a move whose last stone lands in that empty pit. If so, sow the stones of the targeted pit to move them, or sow a stone into your opponent’s empty pit so that it is no longer empty.
• In the endgame, also count the stones that will remain in the pits. When one side becomes empty, the remaining stones go into the store of the player whose side they are on, so if the game ends with many stones still on your side, they are added to your store.

Origin and history of Mancala

Mancala is the general name for games in which players drop the stones from a pit one at a time into the next pits in a row (sowing) and compete to capture stones. Because of this motion, they are also called sowing games. There are many kinds, played on boards with 2, 3, or 4 rows of pits, and the way stones are captured differs from one kind to another.^[2][3]

Mancala games have spread across a wide area: from West Africa to the Caribbean and South America, from North Africa to South Africa, and from the Middle East to South and Southeast Asia. The best known is Wari (also called Oware, Awari, or Awele) from West Africa, which West Africans brought to the Caribbean during the era of the slave trade. Swahili-speaking people on the east coast of Africa play Bao, which uses a board with 4 rows.^[2]

The name Mancala comes from naqala, an Arabic word meaning “to move”. The most reliable ancient evidence is considered to be several Mancala boards found at Abu Sha’ar, the site of a 4th-century Roman fort on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Among written sources, the oldest is considered to be a description of what appears to be a Mancala game in the “Kitab al-Aghani” [Book of Songs], a book of poems and songs compiled in the 10th century.^[1][3]

The rules on this page are Kalah, one of the many kinds of Mancala. William J. Champion’s company in the United States sold Kalah as a commercial product, and Mancala became widely played there after the product came out. Kalah is the most widely played Mancala game in Europe and North America, and in North America it is sometimes simply called “Mancala”.^[3][4][6]

In 1951, Champion applied for a patent on a board for playing Kalah, and the patent was granted in 1955. The patent description says to start with 3 stones in each pit for a shorter game or when children play, and with 4–6 stones for adults. This page starts with 4.^[5]

Kalah has also been used in computer research. The first computer version was made in 1960. A 2000 paper used computers to find the result under perfect play by both players for every Kalah setup with up to 6 pits per side and up to 6 stones per pit, except 6 pits with 6 stones. The rules in this paper differ from the rules on this page in one point: the last stone goes into the store even when the opposite pit is empty.^[4]

Sources

1. Pierre Lombard, “Archéologie du ‘mancala’ : un jeu traditionnel aux origines controversées” [Archaeology of “mancala”: a traditional game of disputed origins] (ArchéOrient - Le Blog, 2017; in French) (opens in a new tab)
2. Alex de Voogt, “Mancala: Games That Count” (Expedition, vol. 43, no. 1, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2001) (opens in a new tab)
3. Kristen Pearson, “Sowing the Seeds of Competitive Play: The Enduring Legacy of Mancala” (Expedition, vol. 58, no. 1, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2016) (opens in a new tab)
4. Geoffrey Irving, Jeroen Donkers, and Jos Uiterwijk, “Solving Kalah” (ICGA Journal, vol. 23, no. 3, 2000) (opens in a new tab)
5. William J. Champion, “Game Counter” (U.S. Patent 2,720,362, 1955) (opens in a new tab)
6. Wikipedia (English), “Mancala” (opens in a new tab)

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Mancala and Kalah?

Mancala is the general name for games in which you sow the stones from pits and compete to capture them, and Kalah is one of them. Each kind captures stones in its own way. In Kalah, when your last stone lands in an empty pit on your side, you capture the stones in the opposite pit. In Wari (Oware) from West Africa, when your last stone lands in an opponent’s pit and brings it to 2 or 3 stones, you capture the stones in that pit. This page uses Kalah rules.

What happens if my last stone lands in my store?

You get an extra turn. There’s no limit to how many extra turns you can take in a row. On this page, the turn display shows “extra turn”. Because you skip your opponent’s store when sowing, your last stone never lands in your opponent’s store.

When can I capture my opponent’s stones?

When your last stone lands in an empty pit on your side and the opposite pit on your opponent’s side has stones. You put the stones in the opposite pit, together with your last stone, into your store. If the opposite pit is empty, you capture nothing, and the last stone stays in that pit. After a capture, it’s your opponent’s turn.

When does the game end, and what happens to the remaining stones?

The game ends when, after a move, all 6 pits on either side are empty. The stones left in the pits then go into the store of the player whose side they’re on. The player with more stones in their store wins, and if both stores hold the same number, it’s a draw. There are 48 stones in total, so once you have 25 or more in your store, you’ve won no matter how the rest of the game is played.

How do I play a friend online?

Press “Play a friend (send a link)” to create a room, and a link appears. Send the link to your opponent. When they open it and press “Join”, the game starts. The host plays first, and the player who joined plays second. A room is deleted when neither player has been connected for 30 minutes, and also 24 hours after it was created.

Can I play on my phone? Do I need to sign up?

You can play in the browser on phones, tablets, and desktop. It’s free, and you don’t need to sign up or install an app. Even on devices where 3D display isn’t available, you can play with the “Button controls” panel to the right of the board (below it on narrow screens).

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