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Origin of Mancala (or Mankala)

The game of Mancala has been known by many names, and has been played for thousands of years throughout Africa and the Middle East. Usually played with pebbles and lines drawn in the dirt by children, ornate boards of wood, clay, and even gold have been kept by people as the popularity of the game has increased.

The Concept of Mancala

The game itself has many variants, and can be played with nearly any amount of stones and/or pits. The most common form is played on a rectangular ceramic or wooden board with two shallow "stores", one on each end, and a dozen smaller "pits" that are positioned in two rows of six each. Either three, four, or five (depending on the variant), stones are placed in each pit, leaving the two stores empty. Each player must choose a store and one of the rows of six pits, and take turns selecting pits. Once a pit has been selected, all of the stones contained in that pit are distributed counter-clockwise to the other pits on the board. In other words, the moving player places one stone in every pit counter-clockwise to the one being emptied, skipping the opponent's store (but not skipping his/her own store!), until all of the stones in that pit have been distributed. If the last piece being distributed ends up in the moving player's store, the player may make an additional move, continuing to do so if each of his/her last stone/s ends up in the store again. It is possible to "capture" the opponent's stones by having the last stone of a move land in an empty pit on the moving player's side that is opposite to a pit with stones on the opponent's side. If this happens, both the stone that had landed in the previously empty pit, and all of the stones in the opponent's pit directly opposite go to the moving player's store. At any time in the game if either player has more than half of the stones on the board in his/her store, that player wins. If all of the pits on one player's side of the board have been emptied, all of the stones on the other player's side of the board are then placed into the store of the player controlling the "non-emptied" side. The stones in each store are then counted, and the player with the most stones in his/her store wins the game.
Fundamental Rules
The Game begins with three, four, or five stones in each pit, and the stores empty.

Each player takes turns choosing a pit on their own side. When a pit is selected, it is emptied of it's stones, which are then distributed counter-clockwise to all pits and stores (except the opponent's store), one per pit/store. If the last stone of a move is placed in the moving player's store, that player may move again. If the last stone of a move is placed in an empty pit on the moving player's side, both the last stone and all of the opponent's stones in the pit opposite the previously empty pit are placed in the moving player's store. This is called a "capture".

The game ends either when one player empties all the pits on his/her side, or when either player has more than half of the stones on the board in his/her store. If a player empties all of the stones on his/her side, the other player may then empty all of their remaining pits into his/her own store. At the end of the game, all of the stones in both player's stores are counted. The player with more stones is the winner.

There is also a variation to the basic rules of Mancala called Awari. Although identical to standard Mancala in many respects, the method of capturing is quite different. Capturing in Awari consists of making either a two or three count in one of the opponent's pits. If the cell before the last is also raised to either a two or three count, those pieces are also captured, continuing backwards until a pit not containing either two or three stones is reached. Because Awari ends when one player has no pieces to move, there is an Unusual Move Rule that helps keep the game from ending till most of the pieces have been captured. If, during a players turn, the opponent has no pieces and the player can make a move that will end up placing stones in the opponent's pits, he or she MUST make that move. If there is no such move to be made, the game will end on the opponent's turn.

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