How do you play Mancala?
On a board with two rows of six pits and a store at each end, you scoop up every seed in one of your pits and sow them counterclockwise, one per pit. Whoever has more seeds in their store at the end wins. Mancala is an ancient seed sowing game from Africa and the Middle East, and this version uses Kalah, the most widely played rule set.
Each pit starts with four seeds. Your pits are the green row at the bottom (on the left when a phone is held upright), and your store is the green one on the right (at the bottom when upright). You move first.
What are the rules of Mancala?
- Sowing: pick one of your pits, scoop up all its seeds and drop one in each pit that follows, including your own store.
- Skip their store: you never drop a seed in your opponent's store.
- Extra turn: if your last seed lands in your store, you go again.
- Capture: if your last seed lands in an empty pit on your side and the pit straight across has seeds, you take those seeds and your last one into your store.
- Game end: as soon as one row is completely empty, the game ends. Seeds left on the other row go to that row's owner.
How do you win at Mancala?
- Look for extra turns first. A pit whose seed count equals its distance to your store gives you another move. With four seeds, that is the fourth pit from your store.
- Play the pits near your store early. Clearing them makes it easier to set up extra turns from the pits further back.
- Guard pits facing an empty hole. A big pile of yours across from your opponent's empty pit is easy to capture. Move it before they land there.
- Count near the end. When a row empties, the leftover seeds go to their owner, so finishing with seeds on your own side pays off.
What are the controls?
Click or tap one of your pits and the seeds move one at a time. On a keyboard, pick a pit with the arrow keys and press Enter, or press 1 to 6 to play a pit directly. Undo is Ctrl+Z or U.
The Hard computer uses minimax search to read many moves ahead, so it is tough to beat. Your win, loss and draw record for each level and your seed count are saved in this browser.