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Apprendre

Kalah

Six things to learn, in the order that will actually help. Set a board up as you read, or start a game against the computer and try each idea as it comes.

  1. Learn your side of the board

    Your six pits are the near row, A1 to A6, and your store is at your right-hand end. You may only lift from your own six, but you sow into everything except your opponent's store. Say the order out loud once and the rest of the game gets easier.

  2. Count before you lift

    Seeds go one per pit, counter-clockwise, and the only slot ever skipped is your opponent's store. Before you touch a pit, walk that many places forward with your finger and see exactly where the last seed lands. Everything before that seed is just bookkeeping.

  3. Take the free moves first

    A pit whose seed count equals its distance to your store buys you another turn. Scan your row for one before anything else, since a free move costs nothing and often sets up the next. In the four-seed game, A3 is the obvious one on turn one.

  4. Hunt for the empty pit

    Find the fullest pit on your opponent's row, then the pit of yours facing it, remembering that A1 faces B6. If that pit is empty and your last seed can land in it, you take both piles. Remember the capture only fires when the pit opposite genuinely has seeds.

  5. Mind the row you leave behind

    When a player starts a turn with an empty row the game stops, and the other player sweeps their own remaining seeds into their store. So an empty row helps you only if your opponent is the one left holding little. Count both rows before you commit.

  6. Count the stores, not the pits

    Only the stores decide it, so keep a running total of both and know what you still need. With forty-eight seeds you win at twenty-five, and the game ends the moment you get there. Ahead, simplify; behind, look for the one big capture that flips the count.

Glossaire

Sowing
Lifting all the seeds from one pit and dropping them one at a time into the pits that follow, always counter-clockwise.
Pit
One of the twelve small hollows that hold seeds, six on each side. You may only lift from the six on your own row.
Seed
One of the counters you sow. There are forty-eight in the standard game, and none of them ever leaves the board.
Store
The large pit at your end of the board where your seeds pile up. You sow into your own store and skip your opponent's.
Lap
One complete circuit of the board while sowing. A big handful goes round more than once and starts refilling the pit it came from.
Capture
Landing your last seed in an empty pit on your own side and taking it, plus everything in the pit opposite, into your store.
Empty capture
The optional rule that lets you keep the lone seed even when the pit opposite is empty. It is switched off here, so a capture needs seeds facing it.
Opposite pit
The pit straight across the board from a given one: A1 faces B6, A2 faces B5, and so on to A6 facing B1.
Extra turn
The free move you get when your last seed lands in your own store. There is no limit to how many you can chain in a turn.
Sweep
The clearing up at the end. When one player cannot move, each side banks the seeds still sitting on their own row.
Starved row
A row with no seeds left. Starting your turn with one ends the game, and your opponent keeps whatever they still hold.
Pie rule
The fairness device for a solved game: after the opening turn, the second player may swap seats instead of replying.
Notation
The shorthand for a move: the pit label, x and a number for seeds captured, a plus for an extra turn, a hash if the game ended.