Yiya kokuqukethwe

Funda

Oware

Six ideas, in the order that will make you dangerous fastest. Play them out on a board as you read; oware makes far more sense in the hands than on the page.

  1. Learn the ring and the pile

    Your six pits are A1 to A6 in front of you, your opponent's are B1 to B6 opposite, and the twelve form one ring with no stores anywhere. Captured seeds leave the board and sit beside you for the rest of the game. Twenty-five of the forty-eight wins it.

  2. Count to the last seed

    Sowing goes counter-clockwise, one seed per pit, and only the last seed can capture. Before you lift a pit, walk your finger that many places forward and see where you finish. Remember that a handful of twelve or more steps over the pit it came from.

  3. Aim for two or three

    Look along your opponent's row for pits holding one or two seeds, because those are the ones your last seed can turn into a capture. Then find the pit of yours whose count lands exactly there. Landing on your own side, or making a pit four or more, takes nothing.

  4. Take the whole run

    After the capture, keep going backwards through their row while the pits also hold two or three. A line of thin pits ending where your seed lands is worth far more than one pit alone. Spend a few quiet moves thinning their row, then collect the lot at once.

  5. Keep them fed, and watch for the starve

    If your opponent's row is empty you must play a move that reaches them, and only those moves are legal. If you cannot reach them at all, the game ends and every seed on the board is yours. Late on, check whether your pits are long enough to cross, because that sum can decide the match.

  6. Build a big pit, then count

    A pit holding a dozen seeds is a stored threat: it sows all the way round, skips itself, and rearranges your opponent's row on your terms. Meanwhile keep a running total of both piles, since twenty-four all is a draw and twenty-five is over. If you are ahead, trade seeds off the board.

Isichazamazwi

Sowing
Lifting every seed from one pit and dropping them one at a time into the pits that follow, always counter-clockwise.
Pit
One of the twelve hollows on the board. You may only lift from the six on your own row, but you sow into all twelve.
Seed
One of the forty-eight counters. Unlike Kalah, a captured seed leaves the board for good.
Scoring area
The pile beside you where captured seeds go. Oware has no stores on the board, so nothing is ever sown into it.
Lap
A complete circuit of the twelve pits. A sow of twelve or more seeds goes round and steps over the pit it started from.
Capture
Taking the seeds from an opponent pit because your last seed left it holding exactly two or three.
Chain capture
Carrying that capture backwards through consecutive opponent pits that also hold two or three, stopping at the first that does not.
Feeding
The duty to give your opponent seeds when their row is empty. Only moves that reach them are legal in that position.
Starve-out
The ending where the player to move has seeds but cannot reach an empty opponent. Play stops and that player takes everything left on the board.
Grand slam
A move that would capture every seed the opponent has left. Under the default abapa rules it may be played but takes nothing.
Vulnerable pit
An opponent pit holding one or two seeds, one sown seed away from being captured. Players across West Africa have their own names for it and the spelling varies from place to place.
Repetition
The loop that ends a stuck game. When the same position occurs for the third time, play stops and each player banks the seeds on their own side.
Notation
The shorthand for a move: the pit label, x and a number for the seeds captured, and a hash if the move ended the game.