How To Play Mancala - Kalah
An ancient game of sowing and capturing seeds. Gather more of them into your store than your opponent, and the game is yours.
The board
You own the six pits on your side and the large store at the bottom. Your opponent owns the other six pits and the store at the top. Every pit starts with four seeds — forty-eight in all.
Take your turn
Tap one of your own pits to scoop up all its seeds. They drop one at a time into each pit that follows, travelling around the board. You drop a seed into your own store as you pass it, but never into your opponent's — theirs gets skipped.
Land in your store, go again
If your last seed lands in your own store, you take another turn right away. Stringing these together is the surest way to pull ahead — plan your scoops so the count comes out exactly right.
Capture
If your last seed lands in one of your own pits that was empty, you capture: that seed, plus every seed sitting in the pit directly across from it, sweeps into your store.
No seeds across?
Landing in your empty pit when the pit opposite is also empty captures nothing — the seed just stays put.
The swap: pie rule
Moving first is an advantage, so the second player gets one balancing choice. Immediately after the opening move — before making a normal move — they may instead swap sides, taking over the first player's position. A Swap sides button appears whenever this option is on the table.
Ending the game
The moment either player's six pits are all empty, the game ends. The other player rakes their remaining seeds into their store. Count the stores: most seeds wins, and twenty-four each is a draw.
Clearing them out
A capture that empties your opponent's entire side is fair play — it simply brings the game to a close.
