How to Play Mancala
Mancala is one of the oldest board game families in the world, and at its heart every version shares the same simple motion: scoop up the seeds from one pit, and drop them one at a time into the pits that follow, all the way around the board. Our app brings together four distinct variants — Kalah, Oware, Congkak, and Bao — each with its own board, its own way of capturing, and its own personality, all built on that same scoop-and-sow foundation. This guide covers the rules for all four exactly as they play in our version.
Overview & Goal
Every Mancala variant is a two-player game of perfect information — there’s no hidden hand, no dice, and nothing shuffled. You and your opponent take turns picking up all the seeds from one pit on your own side of the board and sowing them one by one into the pits that follow, moving in a fixed direction (or, in Bao, a direction you choose). Depending on the variant, you win by banking the most seeds in your own store, capturing the most seeds off the board entirely, or by immobilizing your opponent so they can no longer move at all.
Components
- A board of scooped-out pits, either two rows of six or seven pits per side (Kalah, Oware, Congkak) or four rows of eight pits per side (Bao).
- Seeds, small counters sown one at a time into the pits — 48 of them for Kalah and Oware, 98 for Congkak, and 64 for Bao.
- Stores, one larger pit at each end of the board, used by Kalah and Congkak to bank captured seeds. Oware and Bao have no stores at all — Oware tracks captured seeds separately, and Bao doesn’t count seeds toward winning at all.
There’s no deck, no dice, and no bag — every seed that starts on the board stays in play until it’s captured, and the total count of seeds never changes during a game.
Setup
Every variant’s setup is fixed and identical every time — there’s no shuffling or dealing.
- Kalah: two rows of six pits, four seeds in each of the twelve playing pits, with an empty store at each end.
- Oware: two rows of six pits, four seeds in each, with no stores at all.
- Congkak: two rows of seven pits, seven seeds in each of the fourteen playing pits, with an empty store at each end.
- Bao: four rows of eight pits (two rows per player, a back row and a front row facing the center), two seeds in every one of the thirty-two pits, with no stores.
In every variant, the player nearer the bottom of the screen sits at the “south” side and the opponent at “north.” Who moves first is chosen at the start of the game — against the computer or a friend on the same device you can simply pick who goes first, while online games assign it automatically and alternate it if you play a rematch.
A Turn, Step by Step
A turn always follows the same basic shape, whichever variant you’re playing:
- Choose a pit on your own side that has seeds in it (Bao requires at least two seeds in the chosen pit).
- Sow: pick up every seed in that pit and drop them one at a time into each following pit, moving around the board. Kalah and Congkak drop a seed into your own store when you pass it, but always skip over your opponent’s store.
- Resolve the landing: depending on the variant, the pit where your very last seed lands may trigger an extra turn, a capture, or nothing at all — see the per-variant rules below.
- Continue or pass: if your landing earned an extra turn, you go again immediately, choosing another pit; otherwise play passes to your opponent.
You must always make a move if you have a legal one available — passing by choice is never allowed in any variant.
Worked example (Kalah): say your south row has 3 seeds in your third pit, with your store two pits further along and your fourth pit currently empty. You sow those three seeds into the two pits after your starting pit and then your store. If instead your third pit held four seeds and your fourth pit was empty, the fourth seed would land exactly in that empty fourth pit — and if the pit directly opposite it (on your opponent’s side) has seeds in it, you’d capture all of those opposite seeds plus your own landing seed straight into your store.
Special Rules & Edge Cases
Kalah — sow your seeds around the board, dropping one into your own store each time you pass it and skipping your opponent’s store entirely. If your very last seed lands in your own store, you get an immediate extra turn — and these can chain if you keep landing in your store. If your last seed lands in an empty pit on your own side and the pit directly opposite it has seeds in it, you capture the opposite pit’s seeds plus your own landing seed into your store. If the opposite pit is empty too, your seed simply stays put with no capture.
Oware — there are no stores; captured seeds go straight into your personal score. After sowing, check where your last seed landed: if it’s on your opponent’s side and that pit now holds exactly two or three seeds, you capture the whole pit. You then keep checking backward, pit by pit, capturing every further pit that’s also on the opponent’s side and also holds two or three — a capture can chain across several pits at once. If a capture would take every single seed your opponent has left, the move is still played but captures nothing at all, leaving the seeds on the board instead. If your opponent has zero seeds at the start of your turn, you’re required to make a move that gives them at least one seed, if any such move exists.
Congkak — works much like Kalah, but with a signature twist: if your last seed lands in a pit that already has seeds in it (rather than an empty one), you scoop up that entire pit, including the seed you just dropped, and keep sowing from there. This “relay” can continue for several laps until your very last seed finally lands in either your own store (an extra turn) or a genuinely empty pit (checked for a capture exactly like Kalah).
Bao — the deepest variant. You choose a direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) each turn, and you may only start from a pit holding at least two seeds. Sowing relays automatically whenever your last seed lands in an occupied pit, just like Congkak, but only around your own two rows — seeds never cross into your opponent’s rows during a sow. If a relay’s last seed lands in your front row, on a pit that’s directly opposite a non-empty pit of your opponent’s front row, you capture that opposite pit: its seeds move into your hand and get re-sown starting from one of your own “head” pits, which can trigger a further capture in a chain. There are no stores and no seed-counting in Bao at all — the game is won purely by leaving your opponent unable to move.
How the Game Ends & Scoring
Kalah and Congkak end the moment either player’s side of the board is completely empty of seeds. The other player then sweeps every remaining seed on their own side into their own store. Whoever has more seeds in their store wins — for Kalah that’s a majority of 48 (25 or more), and for Congkak a majority of 98 (50 or more). An even split is a draw.
Oware ends when a player reaches 25 captured seeds outright, or when the player to move has no legal move at all (their side is empty and can’t be fed) — at which point each player takes whatever seeds remain on their own side of the board, and the totals are compared. Most captured of 48 wins; 24–24 is a draw.
Bao ends by elimination rather than counting: the moment a player’s entire front row is empty at the start of their turn, or they have no pit left holding two or more seeds, they lose immediately and the opponent wins. There’s no seed count and no possible draw.
| Variant | Win condition |
|---|---|
| Kalah | Most seeds in your store (of 48; 25+ wins, 24–24 draws) |
| Oware | Most seeds captured (of 48; 25+ wins, 24–24 draws) |
| Congkak | Most seeds in your store (of 98; 50+ wins, 49–49 draws) |
| Bao | Immobilize your opponent — no seed count |
Variants
All four rulesets described above — Kalah, Oware, Congkak, and Bao — ship as full variants you can choose from the setup screen, each playable against the computer, a friend on the same device, or online. Kalah is the flagship ruleset and the only one with a competitive ranked ladder online; the other three are available to play online casually, with a friend, or against the computer at any of ten difficulty levels. We also include a set of Solo Challenges — preset positions built around a specific capture, extra-turn chain, or endgame count, spread across all four variants.
Quick-Reference Summary
- Pick a pit on your own side, scoop up its seeds, and sow them one by one around the board.
- Kalah/Congkak: land in your own store for an extra turn; land in your own empty pit opposite a full one to capture.
- Oware: land your last seed to make an opponent pit exactly 2 or 3 to capture, with backward chaining.
- Congkak/Bao: landing in an occupied pit means scoop it up and keep sowing (a relay).
- Bao: capturing from your front row sends the seeds into a re-sow from your own head pit, which can chain.
- Kalah/Congkak/Oware win by seed count; Bao wins by leaving your opponent with no legal move.