Kalah

Alternate Names

An alternate name for this game is Kalaha. Most players of this game refer to it as Mancala, although this term is probably better reserved as a generic collective term for all Pits & Pebbles games (games of the Mancala family). Occasionally, the game is also misnamed as Kalahari.

No. of Players

Two

Equipment

A Kalah board and ......

History

Kalah was imported in the United States by William Julius Champion, Jr. in 1940.

Objective

The object of the game is to capture more beans than the opponent.

Play

The game commences with four beans in all pits other than the two stores, as above. Players alternate turns. On his or her turn each player picks up all the beans from any one pit on their side of the board, sows them, one at a time, in each successive pit, including their own store but not their opponent’s, going anticlockwise around the board. If the last bean of a sowing is placed into the player’s store, that player is entitled to another turn. If the last bean of a sowing is placed into an empty pit on the player’s own side of the board, the player is entitled to capture all of the opponent’s beans in the pit directly opposite. All of these captured beans plus the one capturing bean are then placed into that player’s store. The game is over when a player does not have any beans remaining on their side of the board when it is their turn. The other player is then entitled to capture all of the remaining beans from their side.

Strategy

Variations

Other variations use three, five or six beans in each pit at the start. The game can be played with both players sowing clockwise, rather than anticlockwise. A longer game may be played by not allowing captures, i.e. the only way a player may gain a bean is when they sow one into their store. Some rules do not allow the player with beans left on their side of the board at the end of the game to add those beans to their store.

Sources