Oware openings: which first move to play?
This page is generated automatically from the games played on playawale.com.
Survey of 29/09/2026, based on a large number of games played on playawale.com.
An indication, not a truth
These figures describe what happened in the games played on the site. They do not tell you how to play, and the program that judges the moves can be wrong.
The conclusion, in plain words
The first move does not decide the game, but it is not entirely neutral. Among good players, pit 6 does a little better and pit 2 a little worse — a few wins in a hundred. If in doubt, start with pit 6. But keep your attention for what follows: that is where games are won.
What is an opening?
On the first move, nobody can capture anything. The only thing that changes from one opening to another is the number of seeds you send to your opponent: none with pits 1 and 2, up to 4 with pit 6.
Which opening does best?
Among good players, how many more (or fewer) wins than average, out of 100 games, depending on the first move.
- Pit 6+2.5 per 100
- Pit 5+2.1 per 100 · uncertain
- Pit 3+1.1 per 100 · uncertain
- Pit 1−0.9 per 100 · uncertain
- Pit 4−2.3 per 100 · uncertain
- Pit 2−2.7 per 100
Green bar: more wins than average; red: fewer. A pale bar marked “uncertain” may be down to chance.
How we found it, simply put
- We went back through every game on the site that kept its moves, and looked at which pit each one started with and who won it.
- We kept the games of good players: those played against the site's strong opponents, and those played between two people. Games against the first two levels, made for learning, were set aside.
- We compared each opening with the average, opponent by opponent. Without that, we would mostly be measuring who picked an easy opponent.
- We asked the site's analysis program to play out every possible line after each opening, then to judge the four moves each player made after the opening.
- Finally, we worked out the margin of uncertainty of each figure, as for an opinion poll: a gap smaller than its margin may be down to chance, and we do not use it to draw conclusions.
Going further: all the figures
Your pits are numbered 1 to 6, from left to right, on the bottom row. Your opponent's, at the top, continue from 7 to 12, from right to left: his pit 7 faces your pit 6. That is the path the seeds follow.
The key points
- The opening most played by those who face strong opponents is pit 1: 23% of games.
- Pit 6 does a little better than average (+2.5 wins per 100 games), pit 2 a little worse (−2.7). These are small gaps: a few games in a hundred.
- The opponent matters far more than the opening: depending on the opponent chosen, the player wins 2% to 45% of their games; depending on the opening, the gap is no more than 5 wins in 100.
- Even looking 19 moves ahead, the analysis program sees only 2 seeds of difference between the best and the worst opening. At the start of the game, nothing is settled.
- With pit 4, the first capture comes earliest (around move 5) — but it is the opponent who captures, 96 times in 100. With pit 1, you are the one who captures first most often (49 times in 100).
- Over the four moves that follow the opening, players played the program's preferred move 53 times in 100, and a costly move (2 seeds or more) 34 times in 100.
Against strong opponents
The games played against the site's six most demanding levels, from the Ancestral Spirit to the Oware Master. Those who choose these opponents know how to play: it is their openings we are interested in.
| Opening | Chosen | Wins | Compared with average | 1st capture yours | 1st capture at move | Seeds ahead at move 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pit 1gives nothing | 23% | 6.3% | 49% | 14.1 | −2.2 | |
| Pit 2gives nothing | 20% | 7.2% | 12% | 10.1 | −4.0 | |
| Pit 3gives 1 seed | 10% | 11.1% | 10% | 7.8 | −6.9 | |
| Pit 4gives 2 seeds | 10% | 7.4% | 4% | 5.3 | −9.4 | |
| Pit 5gives 3 seeds | 16% | 10.9% | 4% | 5.7 | −7.3 | |
| Pit 6gives 4 seeds | 22% | 10.8% | 19% | 9.4 | −5.3 |
How to read the bar: each game is compared with the other games played against the same opponent. A bar to the right of the line means “more wins than average”, to the left “fewer”. The thin line sticking out of each bar is the margin of uncertainty: if it crosses the middle line, the gap may be down to chance.
Between two players
Games played by two people, on the same screen or online. No level here: we simply look at whether the player who opened won.
| Opening | Chosen | Wins | 1st capture yours | 1st capture at move | Seeds ahead at move 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pit 1gives nothing | 24% | 43.0% | 40% | 10.0 | −1.3 |
| Pit 2gives nothing | 6% | 36.0% | 44% | 8.1 | −5.5 |
| Pit 3gives 1 seed | 8% | 50.0% | 30% | 7.9 | −3.2 |
| Pit 4gives 2 seeds | 5% | 44.4% | 39% | 8.4 | −2.4 |
| Pit 5gives 3 seeds | 10% | 55.3% | 50% | 8.2 | +0.2 |
| Pit 6gives 4 seeds | 48% | 56.7% | 44% | 9.5 | +1.0 |
Still few two-player games: these figures will move a lot from one survey to the next.
The opponent matters more than the opening
The player's wins by opponent, all openings combined. The first two levels are for learning: they are not taken into account in the rest of the page.
- Novice Sower (beginner level)89%
- Seed Keeper (beginner level)57%
- Ancestral Spirit4%
- Furrow Wanderer23%
- Immutable Sage ZAK18%
- Immutable Sage SIR18%
- Probabilistic Strategist45%
- Oware Master2%
What the analysis program thinks
The program plays out every possible line, for both sides, and gives each opening a value: the number of seeds ahead (or behind) it promises if both players then play their best. 0 means “even”.
| Opening | 6 moves | 10 moves | 14 moves | 19 moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pit 1 | even | −1 seed | even | −1 seed |
| Pit 2 | even | −2 seeds | −2 seeds | −1 seed |
| Pit 3 | even | −2 seeds | even | −1 seed |
| Pit 4 | −2 seeds | −1 seed | −2 seeds | −1 seed |
| Pit 5 | −2 seeds | −2 seeds | −2 seeds | −2 seeds |
| Pit 6 | even | −1 seed | even | even |
Its opinion changes as it looks further ahead: a sign that the differences are too small for it to decide.
The opponent's best reply
- After pit 1, the opponent's best reply is his pit 12. Expected line: him pit 12, you pit 1, him pit 8, you pit 4, him pit 9, you pit 1. (−2 seeds)
- After pit 2, the opponent's best reply is his pit 7. Expected line: him pit 7, you pit 4, him pit 7, you pit 6, him pit 7, you pit 3. (−1 seed)
- After pit 3, the opponent's best reply is his pit 9. Expected line: him pit 9, you pit 2, him pit 10 (captures 2), you pit 2, him pit 12, you pit 6. (−1 seed)
- After pit 4, the opponent's best reply is his pit 8. Expected line: him pit 8, you pit 3, him pit 11 (captures 2), you pit 3, him pit 7, you pit 5 (captures 2). (−2 seeds)
- After pit 5, the opponent's best reply is his pit 8. Expected line: him pit 8, you pit 2, him pit 12 (captures 2), you pit 2, him pit 7, you pit 3. (−2 seeds)
- After pit 6, the opponent's best reply is his pit 7. Expected line: him pit 7, you pit 1, him pit 10, you pit 1, him pit 9, you pit 2 (captures 2). (even)
The moves after the opening, judged one by one
For each of the four moves a player makes after the opening, the program worked out the value of every possible move. Was the move played its favourite? If not, how many seeds did it cost? The opening itself is not judged here: it is judged above, much more deeply.
Move by move
| Move | Moves judged | Program's preferred move | Costs 2 seeds or more | Average cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Move 2 | 3,676 | 42% | 33% | 1.08 seeds |
| Move 3 | 3,676 | 61% | 30% | 1.06 seeds |
| Move 4 | 3,676 | 51% | 40% | 1.47 seeds |
| Move 5 | 3,676 | 57% | 32% | 2.37 seeds |
| Between two players | 3,128 | 32% | 54% | 2.94 seeds |
By opening chosen: after which opening do players make the most mistakes?
| Move | Moves judged | Program's preferred move | Costs 2 seeds or more | Average cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pit 1 | 3,436 | 60% | 30% | 0.92 seed |
| Pit 2 | 2,884 | 51% | 24% | 1.30 seeds |
| Pit 3 | 1,404 | 47% | 41% | 1.48 seeds |
| Pit 4 | 1,460 | 53% | 41% | 2.97 seeds |
| Pit 5 | 2,344 | 52% | 40% | 1.27 seeds |
| Pit 6 | 3,176 | 49% | 37% | 1.79 seeds |
A forced move — only one pit playable — is not counted.
How these figures are obtained
A large number of games replayed, move by move: those played against strong opponents, those played between two players, and those against the beginner levels, kept for comparison. Games where the computer played the first move are left out: that is not a player's opening.
17,832 early-game moves judged (3,970 different positions: the start of a game repeats a lot), and 634,343,319 positions examined by the program in all.
The margin of uncertainty is that of an opinion poll: with few games, it is large. It will shrink as games are added — which is why this survey is redone regularly.
What these figures do not say: a player who chooses an opening is not picked at random, and their habits count as much as their first move. They describe games, not a rule.
The successive surveys
The survey is redone from time to time, with the new games. If a trend holds from one survey to the next, it becomes more credible; if it changes, it was only chance.
| Survey of | Openings, from best to worst placed |
|---|---|
| 29/09/2026 | 6 · 5 · 3 · 1 · 4 · 2 |
Source: PlayAwale.com — the online oware game