Mancala strategy: how to win more games

Number your pits by how far they are from your store: the pit next to it is 1 step away, the one furthest from it is 6. A pit lands its last seed in your store, and gets you another turn, when it holds exactly as many seeds as it is steps away.

Pits can get big, so the count has a second answer. A pit with 13 more than its distance goes all the way round the board and still finishes in your store.

• 1 step from your store: 1 seed, or 14.
• 2 steps: 2 seeds, or 15.
• 3 steps: 3 seeds, or 16.
• 4 steps: 4 seeds, or 17.
• 5 steps: 5 seeds, or 18.
• 6 steps: 6 seeds, or 19.

Every pit starts with 4 seeds, so only one first move reaches your store: the pit 4 steps away, which is the third pit counting from the end furthest from your store. Play it and you go again.

With that second move, play the pit next to your store. It now has 5 seeds: one goes in your store and four go to your opponent's side. That looks like a gift. It isn't, because the pit is now empty, and the next seed you sow past it makes it a 1, which is a free extra turn whenever you want it.

We checked this with a search on the same rules the game uses. With both sides playing their best for the next 14 moves, third pit then the pit next to your store left you 7 seeds ahead in the stores, more than any other start. The next best, the pit next to your store on its own, left you 5 ahead.

When two pits can both reach your store, play the one nearer the store first. Say the pit 1 step away has 1 seed and the pit 3 steps away has 3. Play the 1, then the 3, and you get two extra turns. Play the 3 first and it drops a seed into the 1, which makes it a 2, and that turn is gone.

So before you take an extra turn, look at what the move does to your other pits. A good chain can be three or four moves long, with a seed banked on every one.

A capture happens when your last seed lands in an empty pit on your side and the pit opposite has seeds. You take both into your store. Look for your empty pits facing a full one, then look for a pit whose count ends there.

One count always captures. A pit with exactly 13 seeds goes round the whole board and drops its last seed back into the pit it started from. That pit is empty, because you just scooped it, and the pit opposite got a seed from you on the way past. So it's a capture every time, and it's at least 2 seeds.

The same counts work against you. If one of their pits has 13, the pit of yours opposite it is going to be taken, however many seeds it holds.

• Check each of their empty pits. A big pile of yours sitting opposite one is the capture they're looking for.
• Move that pile, or fill their empty pit by sowing past it. One seed in it is enough to stop the capture.
• Count their pits the way you count yours. If none of them ends in that empty pit, your pile is safe for now.

There are 48 seeds, so 25 in your store wins and nothing that happens after can change it.

The game ends as soon as either row is empty, and each player keeps what's left on their own side. Before you play out your last seeds, add it up: your store plus your side against their store plus their side. If you're ahead, ending it quickly locks that in. If you're behind, running out of seeds first hands them everything still on their side, so slow down and make them move.

Easy picks a pit at random. Medium looks one move ahead: it counts a seed in its store as worth 4 seeds still on its side, and it likes a move that gives it another turn. Hard looks 8 moves ahead, and an extra turn counts as one of the 8.

Medium can't see a capture that takes two moves to set up, so it's the place to practise them. On Hard, try the opening above and see how long you can stay level.

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