How to play Mancala Duel

Mancala is one of the oldest families of games in the world, played by dropping stones one at a time into a row of pits. This is the full two-sided game: you against an opponent, racing to bank more stones than they do.

If you have played the solitaire version here, the sowing will feel familiar. Everything else is different, because now half the board belongs to somebody else.

The board

• Your six pits are the bottom row. Their six are the top row.
• Your store is at the right-hand end, theirs at the left. Stones that reach a store are banked and safe for the rest of the game.
• The board starts with the same number of stones on each side, arranged differently.

Sowing

On your turn, choose any of your pits that has stones in it. Pick up all of them, then drop one stone at a time into each position going anticlockwise — to the right along your row, then up and back along theirs.

Two rules govern what you pass:

• You drop a stone in your own store every time you pass it.
• You skip their store entirely. Their store only ever receives stones they sow.

A long sow can travel right round the board and back into your own row.

Keeping your turn, and capturing

There are two things worth aiming for, and choosing between them is most of the game.

Land the last stone in your store, and you go again. Chaining several of these together in one turn is the single most powerful thing you can do.

Land the last stone in one of your own empty pits, and you capture. That stone, plus every stone in the pit directly facing it on their side, goes straight to your store. A big capture can swing the game in one move.

If the last stone lands anywhere else, your turn ends and they play.

Ending the game

The game ends as soon as either side has no stones left in its pits. Whoever still has stones on their side banks all of them immediately.

That rule cuts both ways. Emptying your own side ends the game and hands them everything they are still holding, so running yourself dry while behind is a way to lose. Emptying their side while you are still holding stones is a way to win.

Whoever has more stones in their store has won.

How the daily stays fair

Playing against an opponent would normally make a daily meaningless — if the opponent played differently for different people, two scores could not be compared, and the leaderboard would be measuring the opponent rather than the players.

This opponent contains no randomness at all. It works out its reply purely from the position in front of it, which means every player in the world faces exactly the same opponent, making exactly the same replies to exactly the same moves. Play the same line as someone in another country and you will see the same game. The only thing separating two scores is how well each person played.

Your score is the final margin — your stones minus theirs — so a narrow loss still records a real result and ranks above a heavy one. Time only breaks ties.

Undo is unlimited, and it rewinds their reply as well as your move. Since the opponent is entirely predictable, taking a move back and trying a different line is a genuine second look at the position rather than a reroll.

A few pointers

• Count the distance to your store. A pit reaches it when it holds exactly as many stones as the gap: the pit next to the store needs one, the next needs two, and so on. Chaining those is how big turns start.
• Play extra turns in the right order. Several of your pits may reach the store, but sowing one changes the counts in the others. Work out the order before you start.
• Keep an empty pit on your side. Every empty pit is a capture waiting to happen, and the threat alone limits what they can safely do.
• Look at what is facing your empty pits. A capture is only worth making when the pit opposite is full. Sometimes the right move is to wait a turn while they fill it for you.
• Watch your last pit. Stones sown from your right-hand pits cross into their row and end up helping them. Late in the game that can matter more than what you bank.
• Think about who runs out first. If you are ahead, emptying your own side ends the game before they can catch up. If you are behind, it is the last thing you want.