Five ways to capture seeds in oware, the mancala of West Africa.
The basics of strategy and tactics, explained one by one and shown on real positions — from the move you make every game to the combinations that decide an endgame.
Nothing here is made up: this page comes from the games played on PlayAwale. A program replays every one of them, move by move — 591,353 moves examined so far — and records each position where one of these 5 patterns appears. The bigger the database, the more remarkable moves it finds: a new analysis runs every 10,000 games.
And to improve on your own games: at the end of each one, the “Analyse the game” button replays your moves one by one and shows where seeds were won and lost.
An enemy pit with one or two seeds, and a way to reach it
Found 32,822 times in the games replayed — that is 5.55% of moves
An enemy pit holding one or two seeds goes up to two or three when your last seed lands in it — and it is yours. That is the whole capture rule. The rest is a matter of distance: you must sow exactly as many seeds as there are pits to cross, skipping the pit you started from.
It is by far the most frequent move in the game. In the games replayed, 81% of positions offer at least one enemy pit with one or two seeds, and nearly one capture in two brings in exactly two seeds. The four moves that follow all rely on it: if you cannot see the target, you will never see them.
Count the landing pit, not just the distance. A seed dropped on the way into one of his low pits can take it to three — still capturable — but another can take it to four, and it slips away. It is the mistake that costs the most captures.
The move before, which sets up the pattern
The other side
Your side
Two moves earlier, the same player played pit 2.
The pattern move — Pit 6
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 3 pits and captures 2 seeds.
6 other positions where this move came up. The shape is the same; the numbers change.
Pit 5
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 3 pits and captures 2 seeds.
Pit 4
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 3 pits and captures 2 seeds.
Pit 3
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 5 pits and captures 2 seeds.
Pit 2
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 6 pits and captures 2 seeds.
Pit 1
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 7 pits and captures 2 seeds.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
The sowing crosses 3 pits and captures 2 seeds.
Two captures opened at once, and only one move to stop them
Found 5,379 times in the games replayed — that is 0.91% of moves
This move captures nothing. It SETS UP two captures at once: after it, two of your pits are ready to strike, each on a different side of the board. Your opponent plays only one move — he saves one, you take the other.
Two captures are open at the same time, and your opponent can only stop one: all he chooses is which one to give up. On every position shown here, each of his replies has been replayed one by one, and even the strongest still leaves what the page announces. It is a move prepared one turn ahead, and it does not rely on a mistake.
If a single move of his empties both targets at once, it is not a pincer: he defends in one go. A sowing that crosses his whole side does exactly that.
The move before, which sets up the pattern
The other side
Your side
Two moves earlier, the same player played pit 3.
The pattern move — Pit 4
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 5 would then bring in 11 seeds, and pit 6 would bring in 5. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 9, and it still leaves you 5 seeds.
6 other positions where this move came up. The shape is the same; the numbers change.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 5 would then bring in 10 seeds, and pit 4 would bring in 6. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 9, and it still leaves you 5 seeds.
Pit 5
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 6 would then bring in 10 seeds, and pit 4 would bring in 6. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 9, and it still leaves you 5 seeds.
Pit 3
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 4 would then bring in 5 seeds, and pit 6 would bring in 3. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 9, and it still leaves you 5 seeds.
Pit 2
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 6 would then bring in 11 seeds, and pit 5 would bring in 5. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 9, and it still leaves you 5 seeds.
Pit 1
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 4 would then bring in 5 seeds, and pit 2 would bring in 3. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 7, and it still leaves you 3 seeds.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
This move captures nothing: it opens two captures for next turn. Playing pit 5 would then bring in 10 seeds, and pit 4 would bring in 6. Your opponent has only one move to stop them: his best defence is pit 9, and it still leaves you 5 seeds.
One capture, then a second, leaving him no choice
Found 5,120 times in the games replayed — that is 0.87% of moves
This move captures seeds — and it is only the first of two. Whatever your opponent replies, a second capture stays open. He has several legal moves, and they all lose: all he chooses is how he loses.
A single capture can be recovered; two in a row open a gap that is hard to close. And on the positions shown, the follow-up is forced: every reply of the opponent has been replayed, and none closes the second capture. That is what sets this move apart from a lucky capture — it was prepared.
A capture that empties your own ammunition chains nothing, and that is the trap of this move: the seeds sown to capture are often the ones that were meant for the next move. Count what you will have left BEFORE capturing, not after.
The move before, which sets up the pattern
The other side
Your side
Two moves earlier, the same player played pit 2.
The pattern move — Pit 4
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 4 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 8, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 5.
6 other positions where this move came up. The shape is the same; the numbers change.
Pit 3
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 2 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 8, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 4.
Pit 5
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 2 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 7, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 3.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 4 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 8, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 4.
Pit 2
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 3 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 7, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 6.
Pit 1
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 4 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 8, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 5.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
This move captures 2 seeds. Your opponent has 3 replies, and none saves the rest: even with the best, pit 7, you win back at least 3 seeds by playing pit 5.
You may not starve him, but nothing forces you to save him
Found 602 times in the games replayed — that is 0.10% of moves
The rules forbid starving your opponent: as long as one of your moves can give him a seed, you MUST play it. But they do not ask you to save him. If none of your pits can reach him any more, you have no legal move at all — and the game stops dead. Each player then collects the seeds left on their side: whoever kept theirs pockets everything that remains, without playing a move.
It is the only ending where seeds are added to the score without being captured by a sowing: they simply go to whoever kept them on their side. One game in thirteen ends this way, and the player who collects takes five seeds on median, up to thirteen. In a game won at twenty-five, that counts.
The same mechanism works the other way: if it is YOUR side that empties while he can no longer feed you, he collects everything. Don't play your last seeds into his side without counting what you will have left.
His last move, the one that empties his side
The other side
Your side
He plays pit 12 — the last one he had left.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 5 seeds left on your side are yours.
6 other games that stopped the same way. The seeds are not in the same places; the mechanism is.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 5 seeds left on your side are yours.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 4 seeds left on your side are yours.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 4 seeds left on your side are yours.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 6 seeds left on your side are yours.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 6 seeds left on your side are yours.
The position where the game stops
The other side
Your side
He has just played pit 12 — his last. His side is empty and none of your moves can feed him: the game stops here, and the 3 seeds left on your side are yours.
A pit you let grow, until it goes round the board
Found 15,456 times in the games replayed — that is 2.61% of moves
A pit that reaches twelve seeds goes through the other eleven and comes back to its own. It therefore touches the WHOLE board — including your own side, which it refills on the way. No enemy pit is then out of reach: a seed goes into each of them.
As long as this pit is there, your opponent can no longer leave anything exposed: any of his pits is within your reach. It is a threat that is never played and still weighs — it turns your side into a reserve, and his into watched ground.
A granary that grows too big becomes a burden: it retraces its steps, fills pits it has already served, and may end up feeding your opponent more than it brings you. Count what the second lap drops on his side before emptying it.
The move before, which sets up the pattern
The other side
Your side
Two moves earlier, the same player played pit 1.
The pattern move — Pit 5
The other side
Your side
Pit 5 held 13 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 2.
6 other positions where this move came up. The shape is the same; the numbers change.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
Pit 6 held 13 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 4.
Pit 4
The other side
Your side
Pit 4 held 14 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 2.
Pit 3
The other side
Your side
Pit 3 held 15 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 2.
Pit 2
The other side
Your side
Pit 2 held 16 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 2.
Pit 5
The other side
Your side
Pit 5 held 13 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 2.
Pit 6
The other side
Your side
Pit 6 held 13 seeds: enough to go all the way round. It brings in 4.
None of these moves was picked by hand. A program replays every recorded game, position by position, with the rules of the game, and notes each time one of these five patterns appears. The examples shown are the ones it judges most typical: a light board, an ordinary capture, and a known set-up move. The survey is redone every 10,000 games — the bigger the database, the more it finds.
The analysis covers 591,353 moves. They come from the games that kept their full record: those carried over from version 1 kept the result, not the moves, and so cannot be replayed.
The analysis does not look far ahead, on purpose: the move played, every possible reply from the opponent, and what you win back next. Nothing beyond — so what is announced is checked, not estimated. Each example does, however, keep the move the same player made two turns earlier: that is what sets up the pattern, and that is what you need to see to play it yourself.
The survey has not been done yet.
The set-up move, the opponent's reply, then the move itself. The chosen pit is circled before it is played: green for you, red for your opponent.