Oware rules

Six pits a side, four seeds in each. Pick up all the seeds in one of your pits and sow them counter-clockwise, one per pit. Seeds are never sown into the stores. If you hold twelve or more seeds, skip the pit you started from when you come round to it; it stays empty.

If your last seed brings a pit on the opponent's side to exactly two or three seeds, you capture that pit. Then look at the pit before it. If it is also on the opponent's side and now holds two or three, capture it too. Continue backwards until a pit breaks the chain.

You never capture on your own side, and you never capture a pit that holds one, four or more.

A move that would capture every seed on the opponent's side is called a grand slam. In tournament play the move is legal but the capture is forfeited: the seeds stay on the board. Other traditions make the move illegal, or allow it and give the rest of the board to the opponent. The rule builder offers all of them.

If the opponent's row is empty, you must make a move that sows at least one seed onto their side, if you have one. If you cannot, the game ends and you take every seed on your own side.

The game ends when a player has captured 25 seeds, or when both have 24 for a draw. If the game cycles with no captures and both players agree, each takes the seeds on their own side. On this site a game that reaches 400 moves ends the same way.

A different variant, where a grand slam ends the game, was solved in 2002 by Henri Bal and John Romein. With perfect play either side can force a draw. The tournament rules above have not been solved.