PURPOSE:
Welcome to The
Pits & Pebbles Club.
We are dedicated to playing
Mancala and
Oware, ancient stone games that are still played and are very popular in West Africa and the Caribbean.
These two games are really close variants of each other.
GoldToken's Mancala rules are adapted to allow 2–5 players at one time while our Oware rules are those often used in international competitions.
The rules are simple so that these games are easy to learn and play by, but the games are easily deep enough to offer a life-long challenge to anyone.
At this game site, Oware is offered as a variant of Mancala.
MEMBERSHIP:
Anyone with at least a Silver-level GoldToken membership is free to join.
You do not need a personal invitation from any club officer.
Just sign up and you are immediately a club member.
Beginners are just as welcome as experienced players, including in all club activities.
TOURNAMENTS & SIGN-UPS:
The Oct 2020 — Club tourney with token awards, 5 clubs Tournament
MANCALA RULES:
GoldToken's Mancala is a version of Oware that has been known and played at this site for a number of years.
Consequently, its rules are not given here but can easily be found elsewhere at our game site.
If enough club members want an exposition of these rules on our club page, however, their wishes can be granted if they let me know.
OWARE RULES:
Each player is the owner of the six small pits closest to them and of the single big pit at the end of the board to their right.
The game begins with four stones in each small pit, but the two big pits, one at each end, are empty.
These big pits will receive captured stones during the course of the game.
The two players alternate playing, once each turn and with no extra turns.
The goal is to capture more stones (explained below) than does your opponent.
Since there are 48 (12×4) stones in all, 25 or more captures mean a win, 24 captures apiece mean a draw and 23 or fewer mean a loss.
When you play, remove all the stones from one of your small pits and sow them one by one in the small pits moving counterclockwise, to the right, from the starting pit.
Do not skip any pits.
If you reach the end of the row, turn the corner, skipping the big pit, and continue by sowing stones counterclockwise, now to the left, in your opponent's small pits.
Similarly, if you reach the end a second time, turn the corner again, skipping the big pit, and resume sowing stones in your own small pits moving to the right.
Continue playing this way until all the stones from your starting pit have been sown.
If you have more than 11 stones and make a complete circuit sowing, skip the starting pit and continue sowing in the one following.
Similarly, if you have more than 22 stones and make two complete circuits, skip the starting pit again as you continue sowing.
The starting pit must remain empty for the duration of your turn, but it can be played into on following turns by either player so long as it is not the starting pit.
If the last of these stones is sown into one of your opponent's small pits and this pit now has exactly 2–3 stones, capture these stones, placing them in your big pit on the right.
Likewise, if the penultimate small pit you played into also has 2–3 stones, capture these stones as well.
And if the third small pit has 2–3 stones, capture them too.
Continue backward this way until you come to a pit with only one stone or more than three, or until you come to a pit that is yours, not your opponent's.
You can only capture stones from your opponent's pits and only in groups of 2–3.
It sometimes happens that your opponent plays their last stone or stones and has none left.
Then you MUST select a play that will sow one or more stones on the opponent's side of the board to enable them to continue the game.
If you do not have any such play, then the game is over and the remaining stones in your own small pits are added to your captures to determine your final score.
It can also happen that you make a play that would capture all your opponent's stones and leave him/her without any to continue the game with, a Grand Slam.
At GoldToken, the Grand Slam is allowed but the captures are forfeited so that the game can continue.
Your opponent keeps their stones.
Many international competitions adopt this rule because it makes for better games, and we are following their example.
When a player reaches 25 or more points, the game is automatically stopped and the winner is declared.
Otherwise, a situation is reached where the last few stones cannot be captured and play would go on forever.
When this situation is recognised, one of the two players should offer to terminate the game instead of making a move and the other player, if they agree, should accept.
The termination option is located just below the game board.
OWARE LINKS:
1- The Oware Society, with a mailing address in the United Kingdom (London) — www.oware.org
2- Excellent Wikipaedia article on the subject of Oware — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oware
