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Challenge a friend
Duels

Mancala online: sow the seeds, fill your store

Pick up the seeds from one of your pits and sow them one by one around the board. Land in your store for another turn, capture your friend’s seeds, and finish with the most. Send one link and play, no app, no account.

  • 2 players
  • About 8 min
  • Watchable live
  • Free, no sign-up

Challenge a friend

Start the game, then send the link. The first person to accept plays you.

Rules
Who goes first?

Links stay open 48 hours after the last move.

A green mancala board with two rows of six pits and a store at each end, a hand of seeds being sown into the pits

The sowing game, played over a link

Mancala is not one game but a whole family of “sowing” games, played with seeds or stones in rows of pits across Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caribbean. The name comes from the Arabic word naqala, “to move”. The version most people in the US and the UK know as Mancala is Kalah: two rows of six pits, a store at each end, and four seeds in every pit to begin with.

On BeatMe you play it against someone you know. Start a game, send the link in any chat, and play live or one move at a time. The seeds are counted for you, every sowing is animated, and the server checks every move. You can also switch to two other famous versions: Oware (known in French as Awalé), the tournament game of West Africa and the Caribbean, and Mangala, the version Turkish children learn at school.

How to play Mancala

Pick a pit

The six pits along your side of the board are yours, and so is the big store on your right. On your turn, tap one of your pits that has seeds in it.

Sow the seeds

All the seeds from that pit are sown one by one into the following pits, going anticlockwise. You sow into your own store as you pass it, but never into your friend’s.

Land well

If your last seed lands in your store, you go again. If it lands in an empty pit on your side, you capture it together with all the seeds in your friend’s pit opposite.

Fill your store

When one player has no seeds left in their pits, the game ends and each player adds the seeds left on their side to their store. Most seeds wins. Rematch on the same link.

Three rule sets, one board

  • Kalah (the default): 4 seeds a pit, or 6 for a longer game, as many German and wooden sets have it. Stores, extra turns and the capture across the board, exactly as described above.
  • Oware / Awalé: 4 seeds a pit and no extra turns. Your last seed captures when it makes 2 or 3 in your friend’s pit, along with the pits before it that hold 2 or 3. You must feed a friend who has run out, and the first to 25 seeds wins. These are the tournament (Abapa) rules.
  • Mangala: the Turkish school version. The first stone goes back into the pit you took it from, an even number in your friend’s pit is a capture, and whoever empties their side first takes every stone left on the board.

How to win at Mancala

Count before you sow. A pit with exactly as many seeds as it is away from your store lands its last seed there and gives you another turn, so play those first, nearest the store first, and chain several moves in a row.

Watch your friend’s empty pits too. Every empty pit on their side is a capture waiting to happen if one of their pits can reach it, and the seeds opposite it are yours to lose. Keeping a big pit at the far end of your side can save the game late on, when it sows all the way round and refills your pits.

Where mancala comes from

Sowing games are old, but not as old as the boxes often say. The oldest boards known for certain are from the kingdom of Aksum, in today’s Ethiopia and Eritrea, around the 6th and 7th centuries, and the first sure written mention is from the 10th century. The famous “7,000 years” was a sales slogan. Kalah itself was invented in the United States in the 1940s, while Oware, Bao, Mangala, Ô ăn quan and hundreds of other versions have been played across Africa and Asia for centuries.

Mancala FAQ

Can I play Mancala online with a friend for free?

Yes. Start a game on this page and send the link. Your friend taps it and plays in the browser, with no app, no account and no cost.

What are the rules of Mancala?

Pick a pit on your side and sow its seeds one by one anticlockwise, into your own store as you pass it. A last seed in your store gives you another turn; a last seed in an empty pit of yours captures it and the seeds opposite. When one side is empty, the game ends and the most seeds wins.

Is Mancala the same as Oware or Awalé?

They are the same family, but the rules differ: Oware has no extra turns and captures pits that reach 2 or 3. Choose “Oware / Awalé” when you start a game to play those rules, or “Mangala” for the Turkish ones.

Who goes first, and does it matter?

You choose when you start the game: you, your friend, or a coin toss. Going first is a small advantage in Kalah, so the other player begins the rematch on the same link.

How long does a game of Mancala take?

About eight minutes live, a little longer with 6 seeds a pit. You can also play one move at a time: the link stays open for 48 hours after the last move.

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