Vying Games : Oware

Oware is a board game from the Mancala family. It's played under many different names in different parts of the world. Some of these names are Warri, Awale, Awele, Awari, Ayo, and others. Additionally, there are many subtle variations in play. At Vying Games, we've tried to follow the Abapa rules.

How to Play

This game is played by two players on a mancala board with 2 rows of 6 cups. When the game begins, each cup is filled with four seeds. Each player works from the cups on their side of the board. At Vying Games, you'll always play the bottom cups. On the left and right sides of the board are two scoring cups, where captured seeds are stored. Your scoring cup will be on the right side, next to your name.

Sowing

The players take turns sowing seeds around the board. Seeds are sown by removing all the seeds from one of your cups and placing them, one seed at a time, in each of the cups in a counter-clockwise direction. In Oware, seeds are never sown into the scoring cups.

If you sow enough seeds to go all the way around the board, the cup you started from is skipped. In this way your starting cup is always empty at the end of your turn.

Capturing

If your last seed sown, lands in one of your opponent's cups and brings its total to 2 or 3, you capture that cup's seeds. Further, if the next to last cup also contains 2 or 3 seeds, they are captured, too. You continue working backwards in that manner capturing cups with 2 or 3 seeds, until you get to a cup that does not have 2 or 3 seeds. You may not capture seeds from your own cups.

Grand Slams

A grand slam is when you capture all of your opponent's seeds in one turn. Under Abapa rules, grand slam captures are forfeit -- you can make the move, but no seeds are captured.

Starvation

The prohibition against grand slams, is really a part of a more general rule. If you can help it, you are not to leave your opponent without seeds. For example, if your oppenent has run out of seeds, and you have two remaining moves, one that gives him seeds and one that does not, you are compelled to give him seeds.

Winning

If, despite the starvation rule, one side runs out of seeds the game ends. The other player captures any seeds remaining on their side of the board.

Sometimes, the game reduces to a neverending cycle. If a position repeats, both players capture their own seeds and the game ends.

The player who scores the most seeds wins. Since there are 48 seeds total, it is possible to tie with 24 seeds each.

Fair Play

Unlike Kalah, Oware doesn't have any known player bias problems. It is believed to offer balanced play.

Resources

• Oware at Wikipedia
• The Oware Society
• Strategy Guide by David Chamberlin