Mancala FAQ

Mancala is the name for a family of ancient "sowing" board games. The version played here is the one most people mean by the word: a board of two rows of six pits with a store at each end, four stones per pit to start. Players take turns scooping up a pit and sowing the stones one by one around the board, trying to bank the most stones in their own store. It is also known as Kalah.

Yes. mancalagame.app is completely free and runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to buy, download, or install, and there are no interruptive video ads, premium tiers, or paywalls. Open the page and a board is already set.

No. The game is the website — a 100% browser-based build with no app store download and no sign-up. Your stats are saved locally in your browser, so there is no login to manage.

Mancala games are among the oldest known board games. Boards cut into stone have been found at sites across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa dating back well over a thousand years, and sowing games are still played across Africa, the Arab world, and South Asia under dozens of names. The two-row, six-pit version with a capture rule popular in the West is often sold as Kalah, a mid-20th-century commercial standardisation.

This is the Kalah ruleset: two rows of six, four stones per pit, sow into your own store only, free turn on landing in the store, and capture from a facing pit. Oware, Bao, Congkak, and other sowing games share the board shape but differ in setup, direction, capture conditions, and whether stores are used at all. They are cousins, not the same game.

On your turn, pick one of your own six pits and take all its stones. Drop them one at a time into the following pits, going counter-clockwise, including your own store but not your opponent’s. If your last stone lands in your store you go again. If it lands in an empty pit on your side, you capture that stone plus everything in the pit opposite. When either player’s six pits are empty, the other player takes all the stones left on their side, and whoever has more in their store wins.

The board has 12 small pits — six on each side — and two larger stores, one per player. Each of the 12 pits starts with 4 stones, for 48 stones in total. A player wins by finishing with 25 or more stones in their store; 24 each is a draw.

If the last stone you sow on your turn drops into your own store, you take another turn immediately. You can chain several free turns together in a single go. This is the single most important rule for scoring well, because it lets you make multiple moves before your opponent responds.

If your last sown stone lands in one of your own pits that was empty, and the pit directly across the board holds stones, you capture that single stone and all the stones in the opposite pit. Every captured stone goes into your store. If the opposite pit is also empty, nothing is captured and the stone simply stays there.

Counter-clockwise. From your point of view that means stones move left to right along your row, into your store on the right, then continue along your opponent’s row and back around. You never place a stone in your opponent’s store.

With 48 stones on the board, a tie is 24 stones in each store. It is uncommon but possible, and the game simply records it as a draw. Your win streak resets to zero on a draw, the same as on a loss.

Yes. A pit holding 13 or more stones will wrap past its own starting pit. When that happens the starting pit, now empty, receives a stone again on the way around. The only slot always skipped is the opponent’s store.

In this version you always move first. Going first is a real advantage in Mancala — with perfect play the first player can force a win on the standard board — but that advantage is small at a casual level, and the computer opponent will punish loose play regardless of who started.

Relaxed looks only a move or two ahead and sometimes plays randomly, so it is forgiving while you learn. Classic searches several moves deep, chains its own free turns, and sets up captures — a solid everyday game. Sharp runs a deep search that protects its weak pits and reads your captures in advance; beating it means planning a full exchange ahead.

Play every move that lands in your store first, so you bank free turns before committing. Keep a large pile in one pit as an uncapturable reserve. Set up captures by emptying a pit whose opposite is loaded, then dropping a single stone in. Watch the opponent’s reachable empty pits so you are not captured, and near the end, count carefully — the player who runs out first gives the rest away.

On the standard four-stone board, playing your third pit from the left lands your last stone exactly in your store for a free turn, which is why it is the most common opening. From there, look for a second store-landing move before you spend a turn on anything else.

The current streak counts consecutive wins against the computer. Losing a game or drawing one resets the current streak to zero. Your longest streak is kept separately as a best, and starting a new game before the current one finishes does not count as a loss.

Your games played, wins, losses, draws, current and longest win streak, and best winning margin are saved locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server and there is no account. Because the save lives on the device, a different phone, a new browser profile, or cleared site data looks like a fresh start. A game in progress is not saved if you close the tab.

Yes. The layout is built for touch: tap one of your pits to sow. The full board and both stores fit on one screen in portrait, and starting a new game is instant with no page reload.

The game needs a connection to load the page the first time. After that, some browsers may keep the tab playable without a network, but there is no dedicated offline app or installer.

Open Stats from the game menu and use Reset progress, then confirm with the second tap. That clears games played, wins, losses, draws, streaks, and best margin on this browser. It cannot be undone.

Any current browser with JavaScript: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari on desktop, plus their mobile versions. If pits do not respond, update the browser, allow scripts for this site, and reload.