How to Play Mancala: Instructions, Rules and How to Win

Mancala is a game for two players that you play by moving seeds around a board of small pits. You pick up all the seeds in one pit, drop them one by one into the next pits, and try to collect more seeds in your store than your opponent. This guide gives the instructions for Kalah, the version most people mean when they say mancala, then shows how to win with a few simple ideas. Mancala is really a family of games played in many countries, so check which rules your set uses before you start.

What you need

A mancala board has two rows of six small pits, called houses, and one large store at each end. Each player owns the six houses on their side, and the store to their right. You also need 48 seeds (stones or beads work): four for each of the 12 houses.

Setting up

Put four seeds in each house. Both stores start empty. Sit on opposite sides of the board. A shorter game starts with three seeds per house.

How to play, step by step

1. Pick up all the seeds from one of your houses. You cannot choose from your opponent's side.
2. Sow them. Move counter-clockwise, which takes you towards your store on your right, and drop one seed into each pit in turn.
3. Include your own store, skip your opponent's. If you have enough seeds to go past your store, you put one in it, carry on round their side, and skip their store.
4. Check where your last seed lands. That decides what happens next.
5. Take turns until the game ends.

The two special rules

Extra turn

If your last seed lands in your own store, you take another turn. You can chain extra turns, one after another, as long as each last seed lands in your store.

Capture

If your last seed lands in an empty house on your side, and the house directly opposite has seeds in it, you capture both: your last seed and the seeds opposite go into your store.

Some rule sets change the capture rule, for example by capturing even when the opposite house is empty. Agree on the rule before playing.

How the game ends

The game ends when one player has no seeds left in their houses. The other player then moves all the seeds left on their side into their own store. The player with more seeds in their store wins. A draw is possible.

How to win at mancala

1. Count to your store. A house with exactly as many seeds as its distance from your store ends in the store. The house next to your store needs 1 seed, the next needs 2, and so on. Playing it gives you another turn.
2. Chain extra turns. A strong turn can play several of these in a row, working from the house nearest the store outward, so the seeds you drop in earlier moves line up the next ones. Skilled players can clear a whole row in one turn.
3. Keep an empty house opposite a full one. An empty house on your side is a capture waiting to happen if you can land a last seed there.
4. Guard your own full houses. Look at what your opponent can capture from the houses opposite their empty ones, and move the seeds out of danger.
5. Know the endgame. When one side runs out of seeds, the other player banks everything still on their side, so seeds left in your houses still count for you.

For most versions the first player has an advantage with perfect play. If you are playing a friend of your own level, alternate who starts.

Mancala online

We do not have a stand-alone mancala game on 2PlayerHub. Two collections include it as one of their games:

• Mind Games for 2 Player bundles Chess, Tic Tac Toe, Checkers, Ludo, Connect 4, Snakes and Ladders, Mancala and a set of math games. Two people take turns in the same session, and a Spin feature picks the game for you.
• Mind Games for 2 3 4 Player is a larger collection of 27 games including mancala, ludo and tic tac toe. Most of them can be played by two, three or four players.

Something else to play

If you like mancala's counting and planning, these are close in feel:

• Checkers, where you plan captures a few moves ahead. Read checkers strategy.
• Connect 4, a drop-and-line game. See how to win at Connect 4.
• Dots and Boxes 2, where chains and extra turns matter. See how to play dots and boxes.

More strategy games for two are in 2 player strategy games.