Play Mancala Online
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Now you can play Mancala online, for free! This beautiful, ancient game trains analytical thinking and problem solving skills.
Collect as many gems in your "mancala" as possible. Your mancala is the large cup on the right side of the board.
To begin, click the Small, Medium, or Large link above. This opens the game in a pop-up window. Wait for the game to load, then click the "START" button.
HOW TO PLAY. You and your opponent take turns moving the gems across the board based on the following rules:
- You can only move gems from the small cups on your side of the board
- Each time you move, pick up all the gems in a cup and distribute them in a counter-clockwise direction to the next cup. Drop one gem into each small cup and into your mancala as you pass by until the gems in your hand are gone.
- Do not drop a gem in your opponent's mancala as you pass it by.
- If the last gem of a move lands in your mancala, take another turn.
- If the last gem of a move lands on an empty cup on your side, and there are some gems in the opposite cup on your opponent's side, you will capture the gems from both cups into your mancala.
The game ends when all the cups on your side or your opponent's side are empty. The remaining gems on the other player's side are counted as that player's gems. The player with the most gems in his mancala at the end of the game wins.
This game appears simple, but there really is some strategy to it. Whether you play mancala online against the computer or on a real board with a friend, I think you will find it fun, interesting, and a great brain workout.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MANCALA. Here is some background information about Mancala from Wikipedia:
Wooden Mancala Board from West Africa
Image Credit: Indech, Wikimedia Commons
- Mancala represents a family of board games found around the world called "sowing" games or "count-and-capture" games.
- The holes in the board are called depressions, pits, or houses. The large holes on the ends are sometimes called stores. Playing pieces are typically seeds, beans, stones, cowry shells, or other small counters.
- Mancala games fill a similar role in many African and some Asian countries similiar to that of chess in Western countries.
- The word mancala comes from the Arabic word naqala which means "to move".
- The first evidence of the game are pottery board fragments in Ethiopia from the 6th and 7th centuries AD.
- There is actually no one game with the name mancala. Instead it is a type or designation of a game.
I hope you have fun whenever you play Mancala online here on my site!
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