How To Play The Oware

The African pit-and-pebble game of Oware has many names in many languages. Today it is played throughout the world. It is easy to learn, but winning takes a lot of skills and careful thinking. The game is played on a board that has twelve pits carved in two rows of six each.

To start, about three dozen small stones are divided evenly among the pits. The first player chooses a pit and scoops out the stones in it.  Then, moving round the moving round the board to the right, the player drops one stone in each pit. When the last stone has been dropped, the player takes all the stones in the last pit and sets them to one side. It is then the next player’s turn to choose a pit and move the stones. The game ends when all the stones have been taken.

The goal is to collect the greatest number of stones. On each turn, players try to choose the best pit to scoop out. During the game, some pits will have more stones than others. The players try to figure out the starting place that will let the end at a good point. The best players plan their moves several turns ahead of time.

Many games can be can be boring, but Oware is simple, portable and fun to play. If you do not have a board with pits, you can play the game on a cardboard or dirt. On the cardboard draw a rectangle and in it draw twelve equally distributed circles, six on each side and that also applies to dirt.

Oware is a popular game in Africa. A version for sale in the United States has brought the game to many American families as well. But you do not have to buy any thing to have fun with this game. Just find some pebbles and play!