Mancala Online

Mancala is a sowing game for two players. The board has two rows of small pits and a large store at each end, and every move works the same way: you lift all the seeds from one of your pits and sow them, one by one, into the pits that follow. Seeds that reach your store stay there, and whoever has the most seeds in their store at the end wins. You can learn the rules in a minute; seeing where a sowing will end, and what it leaves your opponent, is the game.

Mancala rules

Mancala is the name of a whole family of sowing games. papergames.io plays the standard Kalah rules, the version most players know as Mancala, with six pits per side and four seeds per pit.

• The board has two rows of six pits and a store at each end. The six pits along your side and the store on your right are yours; the other row and the other store are your opponent's.
• Every pit starts with four seeds, 48 in all, and both stores start empty.
• The first player sows first, then the players move in turn.
• To sow, you lift every seed from one of your pits that is not empty and drop them one at a time, counter-clockwise, into each pit that follows. You drop a seed into your own store as you pass it, but you skip your opponent's store.
• If the last seed lands in your store, you have an extra move: you sow again straight away. Extra moves can chain for as long as each sowing ends in your store.
• If the last seed lands in an empty pit on your side and the pit opposite holds seeds, you capture: that last seed and every seed in the opposite pit go into your store. If the opposite pit is empty, nothing is captured and the seed stays where it landed.
• A seed in a store never moves again.
• The game ends as soon as either player's six pits are all empty, after any sowing. Then comes the sweep: every seed still in a player's pits goes into that player's own store.

The rules by example

Pits are counted from your left: your first pit is the farthest from your store, and your sixth pit is right next to it.

Sowing

Your fifth pit holds three seeds. You lift all three and drop one into your sixth pit, one into your store and the last into the first pit on your opponent's side, the one facing your sixth pit. Your fifth pit is now empty, your store has one more seed, and it is your opponent's turn.

The extra move

At the start every pit holds four seeds. Sow your third pit and its seeds land in your fourth, fifth and sixth pits, and the last one in your store: you have an extra move and sow again. That is why the third pit is such a popular first move.

The capture

Your second pit is empty, and the pit opposite it holds five seeds. Your first pit holds a single seed. Sow it, and that seed lands in your empty second pit: you capture. The five seeds opposite and your own seed go into your store, six seeds in one move.

A pit with 13 seeds goes all the way round the board, skipping your opponent's store, and its last seed lands back in the pit it came from, which is empty by then. On the way round it has dropped a seed into the pit opposite too, so a pit of 13 seeds always captures.

The sweep

Your opponent sows the last seeds on their side, and all six of their pits are empty. The game ends at once, and the sweep moves every seed left in your pits into your store. If your store held 20 seeds and 9 were left in your pits, you finish with 29 and your opponent with 19: you win, 29-19.

The Final score

The Final score is the number of seeds in each store after the sweep. Every seed ends in one of the two stores, so the Final score always adds up to 48: 25 seeds are enough to win, and 24-24 is a draw. Once a store holds 25 seeds the result is settled, but the game goes on until a side is empty, and every seed counts in the Final score.

Playing Mancala online at papergames.io

• Tap one of your pits to sow it. Or press and hold it: its seeds lift into your hand, the pits they would reach are tinted, the place where the last seed would land is ringed, and a label reads "Extra move" or "Captures 6" when the sowing would earn one. Release on the same pit to sow, or slide off it to put the seeds back.
• The seeds travel one at a time, so you can follow every sowing, your opponent's included. Tap the board to skip to the end.
• The last sowing stays marked in the mover's colour: the pit it started from is ringed and the pits it reached are tinted.
• A frame in the mover's colour around the board, and a message under it, show when a player has an extra move. A message under the board also announces every capture.
• The score bar above the board shows the seeds in each store and how many are needed to win. On a phone the board stands upright to fill the screen, with your store at the bottom, and each store shows its count.
• You can play from the keyboard: the arrow keys move between your pits, and Enter or Space sows.
• Create a private room and share the link with a friend, or play against a robot at the strength that suits you, at any hour.
• Join the daily tournaments and follow your rating on the global leaderboards.

Mancala strategy

New players sow their fullest pit and hope for the best. Strong players count first: where will the last seed land, and what will the board offer the opponent next?

Chain your extra moves

A pit ends in your store when its seeds match its distance from the store: one seed in your sixth pit, two in your fifth, three in your fourth, and so on. When several pits are ready, sow the one nearest your store first. It drops nothing into the pits behind it, so they are still ready for the extra moves that follow. Sow a farther pit first and it adds a seed to every pit in front of it, which spoils their count.

Keep the pit next to your store ready

One seed in your sixth pit is an extra move whenever you want it: it adds a seed to your store and leaves the rest of your side as it was. Avoid letting seeds pile up there. A big sixth pit drops only its first seed into your store and sends the next ones to your opponent's side.

Guard against captures

Before you sow, look at your opponent's side. Which of their pits would end in one of their empty pits? Whatever sits in your pit opposite that landing is in danger. Sow the threatened pit, drop a seed into the empty pit so it is no longer empty, or change the count of the pit that would capture by sowing a seed into it. And watch your own empty pits: they are where your captures come from.

Hoard late in the game

Seeds left in your pits at the end go into your own store in the sweep. Late in the game it can pay to build up one big pit on your side and to sow small pits that do not cross to your opponent's side. If your opponent runs out of seeds first, the game ends and the sweep adds your whole hoard to your store. Count it, though: a big pit is also a big target for a capture.

History of Mancala

Mancala is not one game but a family of hundreds of sowing games, played for centuries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The name comes from the Arabic word naqala, to move. Each region has its own: Oware in West Africa, Bao in East Africa, Congklak in Indonesia and Ô ăn quan in Vietnam all belong to the family, each with its own board and rules. Kalah, the rule set played on papergames.io, comes from the United States, where William Julius Champion Jr.'s Kalah Game Company sold it from the 1950s. It has been a favourite of computer scientists ever since, and the standard game of six pits and four seeds per pit has been solved.

Similar games

If you enjoy chaining extra moves, try Dots and Boxes, where completing a box earns another move. Backgammon, another ancient board game, is also about counting your way round the board, and Reversi rewards the same habit of looking a few moves ahead.

Community and tournaments

On papergames.io you can join the daily Mancala tournaments, climb the leaderboards and meet opponents of every level, from players sowing their first seeds to those who count every sowing to the end of the game.