How to Use the Last Stone in Mancala

In the African stone dropping game of mancala, what a player does with the last stone in his hand plays a crucial part in the game's outcome. What you are supposed to do with it depends on the type of bowl or mancala it is dropped into. The type of game rules you are playing by also determine what you should do.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Egyptian Rules

1. Drop the last stone from your hand into the next bowl or your mancala on the board. (You are traveling counter-clockwise, dropping one stone each into the bowls/mancala.) In Egyptian rules, you don't drop a stone into the opponent's mancala.

2. Take another turn immediately if you dropped the last stone into your mancala. Take all the stones from one of your bowls and proceed to drop them in the bowls one at a time again.

3. Take the last stone back if you placed it into one of your bowls that was empty. Take all the stones from your opponent's bowl directly across from your bowl. Place all those stones in your mancala.

4. Let your opponent begin his turn if you dropped the stone into one of his bowls or one of your bowls that had stones in it.

Nigerian Rules

5. Drop each stone in a bowl/mancala one at a time until you reach the last stone in your hand. In Nigerian rules, you do drop a stone into your opponent's mancala when passing it.

6. Take all the stones from the bowl the last stone was dropped in if there are now two or three stones in the bowl. Continue your turn by dropping these stones into the bowls/mancalas.

7. End your turn if you dropped the last stone into a mancala, an empty bowl or a bowl that has four stones after you dropped the last one in.

Tips & Warnings

• A bowl will never have more than four stones in a Nigerian rules game. Whenever a fourth stone is dropped in a bowl, the player immediately takes those four stones and places them in his own mancala.