Ayo (Ayo Olopon) rules and how to play the Yoruba mancala solo

Ayo — also called Ayo Olopon in Nigeria, and Awale across parts of West Africa — is one of the oldest games in the world. It's a two-player mancala: no dice, no cards, just seeds moving around a board of houses. The rules are quick to learn and the strategy takes years to get good at.

This is a plain-English guide to Ayo, plus how to play a round solo against a computer opponent right now.

The board

Two rows of six houses (twelve houses total). Each house starts with four seeds — 48 seeds in all. Each player owns one row: the row closest to you is your side. Off to either side, there's a store (some boards call it a mancala) where captured seeds live.

The goal

Capture more seeds than your opponent by the time the row empties out. Simple to say. Hard to do.

How a turn works — sowing

On your turn:

1. Pick up all the seeds from any one house on your own side.
2. Sow them counter-clockwise, dropping one seed into each next house as you go around the board.
3. If you have more seeds than houses ahead, you keep going — but you skip your own starting house.

That's it. No dice, no chance — just moving seeds around the loop.

How captures work

Where the sowing ends is what matters:

• If your last seed lands on the opponent's side, and that house now holds exactly 2 or 3 seeds, you capture the whole house — those seeds go to your store.
• If the house before that also holds 2 or 3 seeds (still on the opponent's side), you capture that too. Captures chain backwards until the count breaks.
• If your last seed lands on your own side, or on a house that doesn't total 2 or 3, no capture — just play passes.

The trick of Ayo is setting up captures — leaving a 1 or 2 in an enemy house that your next sowing will complete into a 2 or 3.

When the row empties

If the opponent has no seeds to move on their turn, you must play a move that gives them at least one — Ayo etiquette says you feed. If no move can feed them, the game ends and remaining seeds go to whoever's side they're on.

Whoever finishes with more seeds in their store wins.

Playing Ayo solo, against a computer opponent

You don't need another human to play a proper round. Play Ayo vs bot drops you into a solo table against a computer opponent that plays a real mancala — it sets up captures, blocks yours, and pressures the empty houses so you have to fill them.

Some tips for beating the bot:

• Count before you sow. Every move is deterministic. Count the seeds, count the houses ahead, and see the landing house before you commit.
• Watch the opponent's 1s and 2s. Those are your capture targets — any sowing that lands your last seed there is potentially free seeds.
• Don't feed captures. If a move puts a seed on the opponent's side that turns their house from 1 into 2 (or 2 into 3) on their next turn, you're the one being captured.
• Empty your rightmost houses last. The houses closest to your capture side sow into the opponent — those are your attack sources. Keep them loaded.
• Late-game endgame counts. When there are only a few seeds on the board, everything is calculable. The bot will play the endgame perfectly — you have to as well.

Where to play

• Play Ayo vs bot — solo, in the browser, no sign-up.
• The full Ayo game page — rules, tags, and multiplayer rooms.
• Play Whot vs bot — the other Nigerian classic, solo edition.

Learn the pattern, then take it to a real opponent when you're ready. Sow the first seed.