Strategy
Kalah
Sow to your store to play again, capture opposite empty pits.
Six pits, four seeds each and two stores: the modern variant of the sowing games, where every extra turn counts. Master level calculates almost perfectly.
- Players
- 1 or 2 players
- Length
- 10 min
- Against the AI
- Two players on one device
15 days of full access, no account · No download
How to play
Goal
Collect more seeds in your store (the large reservoir on your right) than your opponent. There are 48 of them: with 25 seeds, victory is yours.
How it works
- Each player owns six pits on their side and a store; each pit holds four seeds at the start.
- On your turn, take all the seeds from one of your pits and sow them one by one to the right, then into your store, then into your opponent’s pits (counter-clockwise). Your opponent’s store is skipped.
- Extra turn: if your last seed lands in your store, you play again.
- Capture: if your last seed lands in an empty pit on your side and the pit opposite contains seeds, you collect them all, together with your seed.
- As soon as one side is empty, the game ends: each player moves the seeds left on their side into their own store.
- Keys 1 to 6: play the matching pit.
Tip: the pit closest to your store gets an extra turn with a single seed. Chaining several extra turns is often the key to the opening.
About the AI
Alpha-beta search with iterative deepening, a transposition table with Zobrist keys, and priority given to extra turns and captures. At Master level, it calculates around twenty plies and solves endgames exactly. Lower levels reduce the depth and add inaccuracies.
AI levels
- BeginnerPlays one move at a time and often goes wrong.
- AmateurSees its own extra turns, but not always yours.
- IntermediateFive plies of calculation and rare inaccuracies.
- ExpertTen plies ahead: very hard to catch out.
- MasterDeep, time-limited search; endgames are calculated exactly.
