How to play Turkish mangala

1 The board and setup

Each player has 6 small pits in front of them and one treasure on their right: 12 pits and 2 treasures in all. Every pit starts with 4 stones, so there are 48 stones in the game. Treasures start empty.

In the diagrams below you are the bottom row. Stones travel counter-clockwise: left to right along your row, into your treasure, then right to left along your opponent's row. The top-left box is your opponent's treasure and the bottom-right box is yours. Every pit of yours has an opponent pit directly across from it.

In tournaments the first player is drawn by lot; a coin toss does the same job at home.

2 A move: the first stone goes back

On your turn you pick one of your own pits and take all its stones. You drop the first stone back into the pit you took it from, then sow the rest one per pit, counter-clockwise. You pass through your opponent's pits as well, but you never drop a stone in the opponent's treasure; you skip it and keep going. Your own treasure does receive a stone.

Here the four stones from the left-most pit were picked up: the first went back to the same pit, the other three went to the next three pits. The last stone landed in one of your own pits that already held stones, so nothing special happened and the turn passed.

A pit with a single stone

If the pit you choose holds just one stone, it is not put back; it simply moves one pit to the right.

When you sow more than 13 stones the board is lapped. The pit you started from is not skipped on the second lap; it takes a stone like any other pit.

3 Last stone in your treasure: play again

If your last stone lands in your own treasure you move again. Looking for a pit whose stone count matches its distance to the treasure is the most basic technique in the game.

The fourth pit from the left holds 4 stones and the treasure is exactly 4 steps away, so the last stone fell in and it is still your move.

4 The even rule: make an opponent pit even

If your last stone lands in a pit on the opponent's side and brings the pit to an even number (2, 4, 6, 8, and so on), you take every stone in that pit into your treasure. If the count is odd, nothing happens.

The opponent pit held 3, the last stone made it 4, and all 4 went to the treasure. Only the pit where the last stone lands counts, not the pits you passed over. The rule works only on the opponent's side: making one of your own pits even gains nothing.

5 The empty-pit rule: collect what is across

If your last stone lands in an empty pit on your own side and the opponent pit directly across has stones, you take all of those stones plus your single stone into your treasure.

The third pit from the left was empty. A two-stone pit sowed one stone back and one into it. The pit across held 5, so 5 + 1 = 6 stones went to the treasure.

If the pit across is empty you collect nothing and your stone stays where it fell:

The rule needs the pit to be truly empty at the moment the last stone arrives. A stone that laps the board and lands in a pit you already dropped a stone in during the same move does not trigger it.

6 How a set ends and who wins

A set ends as soon as all six pits of either player are empty. The player who ran out first takes every stone left on the other side into their own treasure. Then the treasures are compared and the larger one wins. With 48 stones, 24-24 is a draw.

One detail: if your move captures the opponent's last stones and empties their side, it is the opponent who ran out, so the stones still on your side go to the opponent's treasure. The rule text says "the player whose own stones run out first", not "the player who moved".

Tournament match: three sets

In the tournament text a match is played over 3 sets; winning 2 sets wins the match (1 point for the winner, 0 for the loser). If the sets end level the match is a draw and each side gets 0.5; there is no extra set. The player who started second in set one starts set two, and the player who started set one starts set three.

Three habits worth building early

1. Before every move, check whether any pit lands exactly in your treasure. An extra turn is a cheap tempo.
2. Watch your opponent's pits holding an odd number of stones (1, 3, 5): those are the ones your last stone can turn even. Your opponent is looking at yours, so count your own pits too.
3. An empty pit across from a crowded pit is a weapon. Keep such holes open and do not let your opponent plug them with a single stone.

Frequently asked questions