How to play Mancala

Mancala is one of the oldest families of games in the world, played with stones dropped one by one into a row of pits. This is the solitaire version: one row of six pits, one store, and no opponent. Just you and the arithmetic.

The board

• Six pits in a row, each holding some stones at the start.
• The store, at the right-hand end. Stones that reach it are banked and safe.

Sowing

Choose any pit that has stones in it. Pick up all of them, then drop one stone at a time into each position to the right:

• into each pit as you pass it,
• into the store when you reach it,
• then round again to the first pit, and keep going if you still have stones.

Note that you drop a stone in the store every time you pass it, so a long sow can bank several at once.

Keeping your turn

There are two ways to keep going, and choosing between them is the game:

• Land the last stone in the store. It is banked and you go again.
• Land the last stone in an empty pit. You capture it — the stone goes straight to your store — and you go again.

If the last stone lands in a pit that already had something in it, the board is finished and whatever you have banked is your score.

The capture rule matters more than it looks. With only the store to aim at there is exactly one correct move at every point, which is a maze with a single path rather than a game. Having a second way to survive is what gives you real choices to weigh.

Winning, and scoring

You have cleared the board when all six pits are empty and every stone is in your store.

The score is how many stones you banked, so an attempt that stalls partway still counts for something. Time only breaks ties between equal results.

Every daily puzzle here can be cleared completely. Layouts are checked before they are ever dealt, so a full solution always exists — if you are stuck, it is your line and not the puzzle. Undo as far back as you like and try a different order.

A few pointers

• Count backwards from the store. A pit reaches the store when it holds exactly as many stones as the distance to it: pit 6 needs one, pit 5 needs two, and so on. The pits are numbered on the board so this is a glance rather than a count.
• Empty pits are opportunities, not gaps. Every empty pit is a landing spot that would capture, so keeping one or two open is often worth more than filling them.
• Watch what a sow does to its neighbours. Passing through a pit adds a stone to it, which changes whether that pit can reach the store afterwards. Most of the skill is ordering moves so each one sets up the next.
• The nearest pit is often worth saving. A pit holding a single stone next to the store is a spare turn you can take at almost any moment, so spending it early gives away your flexibility.
• Long sows are not always good. Banking three stones at once feels productive, but a sow that wraps the board scatters stones into pits you had carefully emptied.