Feed your opponent
If their side is empty, you must play a move that gives them seeds. If none of your moves can, the game ends.
Game rules
Oware (also called awale, a game of the mancala family) is played by two, with 48 seeds and a board of 12 pits. Here is everything you need to know to play, explained simply.
- 48 seeds, 12 pits, 2 players
- You sow one seed per pit
- 2·3 You capture pits holding 2 or 3 seeds
- 25 seeds to win
The board and the goal
The goal is to capture more seeds than your opponent. There are 48 in all: the first to capture 25 has won, because the other can no longer catch up.
Each player owns the 6 pits of their row: the bottom row is yours, the top row belongs to your opponent. At the start, each pit holds 4 seeds.
Opponent’s side
Your side
Playing a move: sowing
- Choose a pit in your row that holds seeds.
- Pick up all its seeds.
- Drop them one by one into the following pits, anticlockwise: to the right along your row, then from right to left on your opponent’s side.
- A pit of 12 seeds or more goes all the way round the board: the starting pit is then skipped, and stays empty.
Opponent’s side
Your side
Capturing seeds
If your last seed lands on your opponent’s side and that pit then holds 2 or 3 seeds, you capture them.
And that’s not all: if the pit just before also holds 2 or 3 seeds, you capture those too, and so on going backwards, as long as you stay on your opponent’s side.
Opponent’s side
Your side
Two fair-play rules
Don’t take everything
If a capture would empty your opponent’s side completely, it is cancelled: the move is played, but you capture nothing.
Opponent’s side
Your side
The end of the game
25 seeds
A player has captured 25 seeds: they have won. At 24 seeds each, it is a draw.
No move left
The player whose turn it is cannot play anything: each player collects the seeds on their side, and the seeds are counted.
The same position
The same position comes back three times without anyone capturing: each player collects the seeds on their side, and the seeds are counted. Not while one side is empty: it must be fed first.