From SSAUYET@eagle.wesleyan.edu Wed Aug 24 22:16:31 1994
Newsgroups: rec.games.abstract
Subject: Mancala (Rules and Request for Variations)
From: SSAUYET@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Scott D. Sauyet)
Date: 23 Aug 94 11:26:32 -0400
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This sentence contains the only use of the word "checkers" in the
entire post.   :-)

Okay, I've heard occasional discussions about mancala here before,
enough that when I heard that they were playing it the next blanket
over on the beach, I knew not only that it was an African game but
that stones were moved from one hole to another over the course of the
game.  I even knew that there were many variants on the game on the
same board.  But I'd never seen it before.

So I watched several games and was invited to try my hand at it.  Now
I'm hooked.  Sometime next month I will make myself a board.  But I
want to know more variations than the one I currently know.  I will
describe below the game I learned; if you know others, please let me
know.

For those who've never seen one, a mancala board is a narrow rectangle
with forteen holes in it -- a large one at either of the shorter ends
and two rows of six smallers ones.  (Are there variations on the
number of holes as well?)  At the beginning of the game there are four
stones in each of the twelve smaller holes.  There are two players.  I
will name them Top and Bottom.  Each owns the larger hole on her right
(called her mancala.)  Here is my ascii version:

              T1      T2      T3      T4      T5      T6
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  |       | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O |       | 
  |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       | 
  |       | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O |       | 
  |       |-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------|       |
  |       | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O |       | 
  |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       | 
  |       | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O | O   O |       |
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
     ^        B6      B5      B4      B3      B2      B1        ^
     |__ (belongs to Top)                 (belongs to Bottom) __|

(The labels for the holes are my own invention for recording the game. 
It's actually a simple board with holes carved out.  And when I say
holes, I really mean indentations which hold 15-20 stones, or more in
the case of the mancalas.  And when I say stones, I really mean glass
beads like those that come with a Pente board.)

For convenience, though, I see no need to repeat that ascii board in
exposition, so I will use what I hope is the obvious shorthand:

 |  0- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4     |
 |     4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 0  |   (This is the starting position)

The goal of the game is to collect as many of the stones as possible. 
When one player cannot move (i.e. when the six holes on her side are
empty) the game ends and each player gets all the stones on her side
of the board and in her mancala.  Whoever has the most wins. 

A move consists of of removing all the stones from one of the six
normal holes on your side of the board, then, moving counterclockwise,
dropping one stone into each hole you encounter including your own,
but not your opponent's, mancala.  The move ends when you've dropped
all the stones.  If you end the move by dropping one in your mancala
you move again.  If you end the move by dropping the last stone in an
otherwise empty hole on your side of the board you collect all the
stones from the adjacent hole on your opponent's side; you place these
in your mancala.  That's it, the entire set of rules.

Here's a sample opening (with no suggestion that it is good or bad):

 |  0- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4     | <-- (starting position)
 |     4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 0  |   Top moves T4

 |  1- 5- 5- 5- 0- 4- 4     |   The move ended in the mancala -- Top
 |     4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 4- 0  |   moves again, say T1

 |  2- 0- 5- 5- 0- 4- 4     |   Now it's Bottom's turn.
 |     5- 5- 5- 5- 4- 4- 0  |   Bottom moves B5

 |  2- 0- 5- 5- 0- 4- 4     |   Ended in the mancala, so Bottom again:
 |     5- 0- 6- 6- 5- 5- 1  |   B1 -- this ends Bottoms turn.

 |  2- 0- 5- 6- 1- 5- 5     |   This was probably a bad move as it
 |     5- 0- 6- 6- 5- 0- 2  |   allows Top this one:  T6

 |  7- 1- 6- 7- 2- 6- 0     |   As this ended on the empty T1, Top
 |     0- 0- 6- 6- 5- 0- 2  |   collected all the stones from B6

We can easily record mancala games with this system, e.g. the above is
simply T4,T1,B5,B1,T6,??.  For a one-line storage of a position, I
would suggest the following as a recording of the last position shown:
"B|07|01,06,07,02,06,00|00,00,06,06,05,00|02".  Perhaps with ';'
instead of '|'.  The initial 'B' says that it is Bottom's move.

I should note that a player continues to move as long as she continues
to end in her mancala -- she can make many consecutive moves, e.g.
>from this position:

 | 12- 1- 1- 0- 4- 5- 6     |
 |     5- 3- 0- 6- 0- 1- 8  |

Top has the following string of moves:  T1, T4, T1, T2, T1, T5, T1,
T6, T1, T2, T1, T3, T1, T2, leaving this won position:

| 30- 1- 0- 0- 2- 1- 0     |
|     0- 3- 0- 6- 0- 1- 8  |   

(We know this is won since Top already has more than half of the
stones in her mancala.)

One more note is that 13 is a lucky number in this game.  If you have
a hole with 13 stones and the opponent's adjacent hole has N stones,
by moving the 13 you add N + 2 stones to your mancala -- try it. 
(Remember that you don't drop stone's in your opponent's mancala.)


Well that's the game.  If anyone has made a board, I'd love to hear
about it.  And most importantly, I'd really like to hear about other
games on this board.
 __        ___    
(_   c o t  |      Are the last three words of       ssauyet@eagle
__) a u y e |   this sentence "used or mentioned?"   .wesleyan.edu

