How to Play Wari

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Wari is a two-player abstract strategy game from the mancala family. Played on a board of twelve small pits arranged in two rows of six, plus two scoring stores, it uses 48 small seeds or stones as its only pieces. The rules are simple to state but the game rewards deep forward planning, making it compelling for children and adults alike.

It is widely played across West Africa and the Caribbean, often outdoors or around a kitchen table, and is one of the most studied abstract games in the world. A game takes around 20 to 40 minutes, plays equally well as a casual family game or a serious competitive match, and needs no special equipment beyond the board and seeds.

A little history

Mancala-type games are among the oldest known board games, with physical boards found carved into stone across parts of Africa and the Middle East, though the precise age and origin of Wari specifically are unclear. Wari as it is most commonly codified today is closely associated with West Africa, particularly the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana, and has been carried across the Atlantic through the African diaspora, becoming embedded in the cultures of the Caribbean and parts of South America. It is traditionally crafted from wood, with hollowed pits and seeds from local plants, though regional names and minor rules variations are numerous.

Setting up

1. Place the board between the two players so each has a row of six pits directly in front of them.
2. Identify each player's store: by convention, the store to a player's right belongs to that player.
3. Place exactly four seeds into each of the twelve pits. Both stores start empty.
4. Decide who goes first by agreement or by lot.

How to play

1. Players alternate turns. On your turn you must move; passing is not permitted unless no legal move exists.
2. Select any pit on your own side of the board that contains at least one seed.
3. Pick up all seeds from that pit and sow them one by one into consecutive pits, moving anticlockwise (to the right along your row, then continuing into your opponent's row on the far side).
4. Your own store is not used during sowing and is skipped entirely when distributing seeds. Your opponent's store is also skipped.
5. If the pit you choose contains 12 or more seeds, the sowing will travel all the way round the board. Skip the originating pit on the way past; it remains empty.
6. After sowing, examine the last pit where a seed was placed. If that pit is on your opponent's side of the board and now contains exactly two or three seeds, capture all seeds in it and place them in your store.
7. After a capture, look at the immediately preceding pits (continuing anticlockwise back along the opponent's row). If each of those consecutive pits also contains two or three seeds, capture those as well. Stop as soon as you reach a pit that does not contain two or three seeds, or as soon as you leave the opponent's side.
8. A capture move is only legal if it leaves your opponent with at least one seed remaining on their side of the board after the capture is complete (the 'feeding' rule). If a proposed capture would remove every seed from the opponent's side, the capture does not take place; you sow normally but take nothing.
9. If at the start of your turn your opponent has no seeds on their side, you must play a move that gives them seeds if one is available. If no such move exists, the game ends.
10. The game also ends immediately if one player has captured 25 or more seeds (a majority of the 48), since the result is then certain.
11. When the game ends because neither player can move or feed the other, each player captures all seeds remaining on their own side of the board and adds them to their store.

Winning and scoring

The player who has captured 25 or more of the 48 seeds wins the game outright. If both players end with exactly 24 seeds, the game is a draw. When the game ends through the board being emptied by mutual agreement or through neither player being able to feed the other, seeds remaining on each side go to the player who owns that side before the final count is made.

The fine points

The feeding rule causes the most arguments at the table. If your capture would take the very last seeds from your opponent's side, the capture is forfeit: you sow your seeds as normal but collect nothing. The test is applied after the full chain capture is calculated, not pit by pit. If playing a move that does not involve a capture still gives the opponent no seeds, and no other move exists that would feed them, the game ends and each player takes what remains on their own side.

The 'grand slam' situation, where a player empties the entire board in one sow, is handled simply: the move is valid and no capture is made, because all seeds must be left in play as long as possible. Some players also dispute whether the chain capture extends back onto the player's own side; under standard rules it does not. Captures are collected only from consecutive qualifying pits on the opponent's side of the board, working back anticlockwise from the landing pit, and stop the moment a pit on your own side is reached.

How to win more often

• Count before you move. Always trace the full path of a sow before lifting the seeds, including whether a chain capture is triggered.
• Keep your pits topped up evenly. A row of pits with roughly similar counts is harder for your opponent to exploit with long captures.
• Threaten two or three seeds in multiple opponent pits simultaneously. Forcing your opponent to choose which threat to neutralise often means you capture at least one group.
• Respect the feeding rule as a weapon. Manoeuvre your opponent's side towards zero seeds so that their only legal moves are ones that benefit you, but be careful you do not trigger the end-of-game rule prematurely when you are behind in the count.
• Winning at 25 is the target, not annihilation. Once you are clearly ahead, reducing tempo and simplifying the board can be more effective than chasing large captures that might leave your own side vulnerable.

Variations

Oware (Ghanaian standard)

Oware is the most widely formalised version of Wari and is the one used in official tournaments. The rules are essentially identical to those described above. The name is used interchangeably with Wari in many texts, though regional terminology varies. Some Oware sets use a rectangular board with a more pronounced curve to each pit, and seeds are traditionally the dried seeds of the Abrus precatorius plant.

Awale (West African variant)

Awale, common in Ivory Coast and neighbouring countries, follows the same core rules but some regional traditions allow a player to choose whether to capture or not when the conditions are met, rather than making capture automatic. This optional-capture rule changes the strategic calculus significantly, as players can deliberately decline a capture to set up a larger one on a future turn.

Two-lap (Relay) Wari

In this variant, if the last seed sown lands in a non-empty pit, the player picks up all seeds in that pit and continues sowing from there. The turn ends only when the last seed lands in an empty pit. Captures are still resolved at the end of the completed relay. This variant is common in parts of East Africa and produces much longer, more complex turns.

Short Wari (six-seed start)

Each pit begins with six seeds rather than four, giving 72 seeds in total and a majority target of 37. This version suits players who want a longer, more tactical game with more opportunities for large chain captures. The rules are otherwise unchanged. It is sometimes used informally when players feel a standard game resolves too quickly.

Wari: frequently asked questions