Oware rules

Description

Oware is a game played between two people who stand on opposite sides of a board consisting of two rows of six holes each. Each row represents the playing area or territory of the player closest to the board. The game also uses 48 seeds (which can be stones or any other small object).

In Oware, as in other Mancala games, the seeds are the pieces used by the opponents, but they are not tied to either side; both players use all the seeds. Each player's connection to the game board is based on their playing area; each player controls a specific section of the board.

Game objective

The aim of the game is very simple: each player must try to collect more seeds than their opponent. The winner is the one who gets more than half the seeds (25 or more).

Game Development

Starting position

The game begins with the 48 seeds distributed in the 12 holes (4 in each one).

Movements

The moves are made in alternating turns. On their turn, a player must select one of the holes on their board and sow the seeds found there. Sowing means distributing seeds into the other holes on the board (both their own and the opponent's), one by one, in a counter-clockwise direction, starting with the first hole in that direction from the hole from which the seeds were taken.

If the number of seeds is such that by depositing them in the indicated way, the board is completely circled (12 seeds or more), no seed will ever be deposited in the original hole and this will be skipped by depositing the seeds in the following ones in the way already described: at the end of a move the original hole of the seeds must always end up empty.

Captures

In Oware, the objective is to capture more seeds than the opponent. Captures are made as follows: if a player, on their turn and after making their sowing move, places the last seed from that sowing into a hole in the opponent's field that contains two or three seeds (including the last one), they must collect all the seeds (2 or 3) in that hole and place them in a pile off the board.

If, after collecting the seeds from that last hole, it turns out that the preceding hole (preceding in the sense of sowing) also has two or three seeds and belongs to the opposing field, the player must also collect these seeds for himself, repeating this operation until he finds a hole that either has neither two nor three seeds, or does not belong to the opposing field.

Limitations on movements and captures

If, when it is a player's turn, they see that the opponent's field has no seeds in any of its holes, they must choose a move that will introduce a seed into that field. If this is not possible, the game ends, and the player whose turn it was collects all the seeds in their field.

If, after sowing, subsequent captures would result in the opponent's field being left without any seeds, the move will be carried out but no capture is made.

There are many different interpretations of the above rule, which gives rise to various versions of the game; we have chosen this one as it is the one included in the unified international rules, recognized by the World Oware Federation.

End

As already mentioned, to win the game, the game ends when one of the palyers captures more than 24 seeds.

If, before either player reaches the number of seeds required to win, a situation arises where, due to a lack of seeds, it is not possible to make new captures and the game enters a cycle, each player captures the seeds in their own zone and the game is ended.