Mancala is a game of sowing seeds. Each turn you scoop up the seeds from one of your pits and drop them one by one around the board. Your aim is to gather more seeds in your store than the computer. This version uses the common Kalah rules.

How to play

The board has two rows of six pits, and a large store at each end. Every pit starts with 4 seeds. Your six pits are the ones in front of you, and your store is the big pit at the end of your row, on your right. At the start of a game you choose who goes first.

On a phone or tablet: tap one of your glowing pits.
On a computer: click it.

The seeds from that pit are picked up and dropped one at a time: into your next pits, then your store, then the computer's pits. The seeds skip the computer's store. This is called sowing.

Two special things can happen:

Another turn: if your last seed lands in your store, you go again.
Capture: if your last seed lands in an empty pit of yours, and the pit opposite it holds seeds, you take all of those seeds, plus your own last seed, into your store.

The game ends when one side has no seeds left in its pits. The other side keeps the seeds still on its own side. The player with more seeds in the store wins.

The levels

Easy: the computer plays the pit that gains the most right now, and sometimes just plays any pit.
Medium: it looks three moves ahead.
Hard: it looks seven moves ahead and rarely wastes a seed.
Expert: it thinks for about a third of a second a move and searches as deeply as it can.

Seeds move quickly, and the computer waits a moment before it replies so you can see where your seeds landed.

Today's game

There is a Medium game each day, with the same set-up for all players. If you stop midway, the game is saved on your device.

Tips

Learn the count to your store. The pit nearest your store needs 1 seed to end in it, the next pit needs 2, and so on. A pit with exactly that many seeds gives you another turn.
Chain your extra turns. Play the pit nearest your store first if it has exactly one seed, and then use the next pit. Each one can set up the next.
Keep some small pits. Pits holding one or two seeds are useful for finishing in your store or for becoming an empty capture pit.
Look for captures. An empty pit of yours opposite a heavy pit of the computer's is a target. Arrange for a last seed to land there.
Watch the computer's captures too. If it has an empty pit opposite one of yours with many seeds, it may be planning to take them.
Do not empty your pits too soon. When one side runs out, the game ends and the other side keeps its seeds.
Seeds you sow around into the computer's pits become the computer's. Try to avoid feeding it with long sows unless they pay off.

A bit of history

Mancala is not a single game but a family of seed-sowing games, played in many parts of Africa and Asia for a very long time.

Questions

Do my seeds go into the computer's store? No. Sowing skips the computer's store and uses only yours.

What happens if my last seed lands in a pit that has seeds? Nothing special. The turn passes to the computer.

Can I choose which pit to play? Any of your pits that holds at least one seed.

Who plays first? You choose at the start of each game.

Mancala