Kalah

For other uses, see Kala.

Kalah
Ranks	Two
Sowing	Single lap
Region	United States, Germany

Kalah, also called Kalaha or Mancala, is a game in the mancala family introduced to the West by William Julius Champion Jr in the early 20th century. When someone in the United States refers to "Mancala," they are probably referring to this game, although there are deeper mancala games available: this game heavily favors the starting player, who will always win the three-seed version with perfect play. This game is sometimes also called "Kalahari," by false etymology from the Kalahari desert in Namibia.

As the most popular and commercially available variant of mancala in the West, Kalah is also sometimes referred to as Warri or Awari, although those names more properly refer to the game Oware.

Equipment

The game requires a Kalah board and 36 seeds or counters. The board has 6 small pits, called houses, on each side; and a big pit, called a Kalah or store, at each end. Many games sold commercially come with 48 seeds or counters, and the game is started with 4 seeds in each house.

Object

The object of the game is to capture more seeds than one's opponent.

Example turn

The player begins sowing from the highlighted house.

The last seed falls in the store, so the player receives an extra move.

The last seed falls in an empty house on the player's side, with seeds in the opposite house.

The player captures the 4 seeds and ends his turn.

Rules

1. At the beginning of the game, three seeds are placed in each house. Typically, the winner of the previous game starts the next game.
2. Each player controls the six houses and their seeds on his side of the board. His score is the number of seeds in the store to his right.
3. Players take turns sowing their seeds. On a turn, the player removes all seeds from one of the houses under his control. Moving counter-clockwise, the player drops one seed in each house in turn, including the player's own store but not his opponent's.
4. If the last sown seed lands in the player's store, the player gets an additional move. There is no limit on the number of moves a player can make in his turn.
5. If the last sown seed lands in an empty house owned by the player, and the opposite house contains seeds, both the last seed and the opposite seeds are captured and placed into the player's store.
6. When one player no longer has any seeds in any of his houses, the game ends. The other player moves all remaining seeds to his store, and the player with the most seeds in his store wins.

It is possible for the game to end in a draw, with 18 seeds each.

Variations

• A common, more challenging variation is to begin with four, five or six seeds in each pit, rather than three. Four- and five-seed Kalah have been solved, with the starting player always winning with perfect play, as in three-seed Kalah. Six-seed Kalah has not yet been solved, but likely has a similar outcome.
• The "Empty Capture" variant modifies the rules to prohibit a player from capturing seeds from his opponent when landing in an empty house -- i.e., only the last sown seed is placed into the store.
• An alternate rule does not count the remaining seeds as part of the opponent's score at the end of the game.
• In Sweden, the game is sold under the name Kalaha, played with six seeds in each house. The rules have traditionally been the ones listed above, but lately the games are sold with rules included, describing the game supposed to be played with relay sowing - if the last seed during sowing lands in an occupied hole, all the contents of that hole, including the last sown seed, are immediately resown from the hole. The process continues until sowing ends in an empty hole.

External links

• The Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games article on Kalah.
• Jeroen Donkers Kalah page.
• Rules from an online "Awari" game.
• Another online Kalah game with Geoffrey Irving's code