Bao
Bao Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
Frequently in Bao several rules are applied at the same time. In those situations, it is important to apply the rules in the correct order. The hierarchy of the rules is of extreme importance. This rulebook presents the rules in as logical an order as possible.
Variations in the Rules
The rules presented here were collected by Alex de Voogt between 1991 and 1995. He was helped by Bao masters from Zanzibar. It is very possible that different or additional rules exist elsewhere. These variants can be fun to play, but they are not the rules used during championship tournaments. This article presents only the official rules as Alex de Voogt describes them.
Goal of the Game
In order to win, a player must either deplete the front row of the opponent or deprive the opponent of all legal moves. There are no draws in Bao. Theoretically draws are possible — for example, when a move sets up an endless cycle — but they do not occur under normal play.
The Board and the Starting Position
The Bao board is seen from above with two rows of eight holes belonging to each player: the top two rows belong to one player's adversary, the bottom two rows belong to that player, in this article's convention.
Schematic starting position (0 = empty hole; a number = that many seeds in the hole):
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 2 2 6 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 6 2 2 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Each player has ten seeds on the board at the start. The seeds are called kete (plural: kete). The other 22 seeds are kept off the board and are brought into play one by one. The process of introducing the additional kete divides a Bao game into two stages:
- Namua stage — each player brings one seed into play each turn. Winning during namua is called winning mkononi ("in hand"), because there are still seeds left in hand to bring into play.
- Mtaji stage — if there is no winner during the namua stage, players keep playing with the seeds already on the board until there is a winner.
The rules below explain namua first, then mtaji.
Namua Stage — Enter from the Stock
To start a move, look for a hole on your front row that already contains one or more seeds (ignore the empty holes). Now select a hole with seeds that has an opposing hole that also contains one or more seeds (ignore occupied holes whose opposing hole is empty).
Take a seed from your stock and put it in the hole you have selected. Take the seeds in the opposing hole — you have now captured these seeds.
To capture seeds from the opponent you must satisfy three conditions:
- there must be one or more seeds in your own hole in the front row
- there must be one or more seeds in the opposing hole in the opponent's front row
- you put one seed from your stock into the appropriate hole in your front row
Example: front row shows 1 0 1 8 1 2 0 0 for you opposite 0 0 0 0 7 0 2 1 for the opponent. You can capture by taking a seed from your stock and placing it into the hole with seven seeds — now that hole contains eight seeds — and taking the seed from the opposing hole.
You Must Capture If You Can
It is important to know that you have to capture if there is a possibility to do so. If several holes have seeds but only one of them has seeds in its opposing hole, that capture is the only legal move.
Entering Captured Seeds
In Chess or Checkers the opposing pieces are removed from play; in Bao the captured seeds are brought back into play immediately. Put the captured seed(s) in the extreme left or right hole of your front row. These holes are called kichwa (literally "head").
If the captured seed is entered into an empty hole, the move ends there. Captured seed(s) are always entered starting from a kichwa (an extreme left or right hole), never starting in the second or another hole.
Entering More Than One Seed
If the capture yields more than one seed, take all the seeds and sow them in your front row, beginning in the left or right kichwa. Sowing means one seed is put in the hole that lies next to the hole that received the previous seed — always sow one seed at a time and never skip a hole. The player choosing to capture can freely decide whether to begin sowing from the left kichwa or the right kichwa, except where the Kichwa and Kimbi rule below removes that choice.
The move ends when the last sown seed falls in an empty hole.
Kichwa and Kimbi
There are situations where a player cannot choose which side to sow from: when the capture is made from the two holes on either end of the board. In that case, the captured seeds must be entered on the same side where they were captured. These two holes on the extreme left and right have special names: the outer ones are the kichwa (already introduced); the second holes from left and right are called kimbi.
In other words: if you capture the opposing seeds of your own kichwa or kimbi hole, you must sow the captured seeds starting from that same side (left kichwa if the capturing hole was on the left, right kichwa if it was on the right) — you are not free to choose the other side.
Capturing with Captured Seeds
If seeds you have just captured, upon being sown, have their last seed fall in a hole that already contains seeds, and the hole opposing that one also contains seeds, you may capture those seeds too — captured seeds immediately change sides and can go on to capture even more opposing seeds. Of course this can only happen if there are seeds in the opposing hole. If there are none, then take all the seeds from this last hole and sow them again, sowing in the same direction (see "To Keep on Sowing" below).
If you captured a kichwa or kimbi hole, the direction of sowing can change according to the kichwa and kimbi rule above. Your turn can only end when your last seed falls in an empty hole — remember that you always keep on sowing or capturing until that happens.
Multiple Captures
By capturing with captured seeds, multiple captures in a single turn are possible: sow the newly captured seeds in the direction required (or chosen), and if the last one again lands in an occupied hole with seeds opposite it, capture again, and repeat, until a sown seed finally lands in an empty hole.
To Keep on Sowing
If the last sown seed lands in an occupied hole whose opposite hole has no seeds, the move does not end and there is nothing to capture. In that case, take all of the seeds from that hole and start sowing again, without changing direction, starting with the very next hole. This can carry the sowing on into the back row, and even back around into the front row again if there are enough seeds — this is called sowing around the corner.
No Capturing — Takasa
In some situations you cannot start a move with a capture (for example, at the very start of the game). Moves that cannot start with a capture are called takasa.
If you cannot start with a capture, put a seed in one of your holes that already has one or more seeds, take all the seeds from that hole, and start sowing them. Keep sowing until your last seed lands in an empty hole. During a takasa move, no captures are allowed at all — this is because the move did not start with a capture.
Rules of the House — Nyumba
The nyumba (Swahili for "house") is the hole marked with a rectangle. It is always the fifth hole from the left on the front row. The nyumba ceases to be a nyumba as soon as the seeds it contains are sown; after that it is an ordinary hole like all others.
The nyumba has special rules concerning keeping on sowing and emptying the nyumba in takasa situations. These special rules do not apply if there are fewer than six seeds in the nyumba.
To Stop Sowing
Under "To Keep on Sowing" above, a player must continue sowing if the last seed falls in an occupied hole whose opposite hole is empty. The nyumba is an exception to this rule: if the last seed falls in the nyumba and the opposing hole is empty, the player may choose to end the turn there instead of continuing to sow, and the opponent then starts their move. If the player instead chooses to continue sowing the nyumba's seeds, the result is fixed by the normal sowing rules.
This choice is strategically important: sowing the seeds from your nyumba at exactly the right moment, later in the game, can result in a devastating chain of captures across the whole of the opponent's front row — called Bao Hamna (clearance of the front row), which wins the game outright. Because of this, players often deliberately stop at the nyumba and wait for a better opportunity in a later turn rather than sowing it immediately.
A Takasa Situation with Only Your Nyumba Remaining
This is the second special nyumba rule. If, in a takasa situation, the nyumba is the only hole left with seeds and you cannot make a capture, place a seed in your nyumba, then take out two seeds from it and sow them to the left or to the right (your choice), leaving the rest of the nyumba's seeds in place.
As above, these special nyumba rules do not apply if there are fewer than six seeds in the nyumba.
Summary of the Most Important and Frequently Used Rules
- You have to capture if you can.
- Entering captured seeds must be done in the front row, starting from the first hole on the left or right (a kichwa).
- You have no choice of which side to start sowing from when:
- you captured a kichwa or kimbi hole, or
- you have already been sowing in a direction during the same move.
- If the last seed ends in an occupied hole, capture the opposing seeds (if there are any).
- If there is nothing in the opposing hole, take the seeds from your last hole and sow them again in the same direction.
- Your move ends when your last seed falls in an empty hole.
Mtaji Stage
The mtaji stage begins when the namua stage ends — that is, once all seeds in the stocks have been brought into play. The mtaji stage is not very different from the namua stage.
Capture
In the mtaji stage you must capture if you can. Because no more seeds can be brought into play from the stock, you must instead take a hole and, after sowing its contents, end with the last seed falling in a hole in the front row that has an opposing hole with seeds in it. The opposing hole being captured from is called mtaji (plural: mitaji).
To summarize the mtaji capture:
- sow seeds from a hole (this may be a hole from the front row or the back row);
- the last seed from that hole must end in a hole in the front row that has one or more seeds already in it;
- there must be one or more seeds in the opposing hole (the mtaji);
- the seeds in the mtaji are captured;
- playing a singleton (a hole with only one seed in it) as the starting hole is not allowed;
- if there is no mtaji available, you play takasa (see below).
Takasa in the Mtaji Stage
In the mtaji stage it is not uncommon to reach a situation where no captures are possible — either because there are no occupied holes with occupied holes opposite them (no mitaji), or because there is no hole that, when sown, would end opposite a mtaji. These situations are also called takasa.
In a takasa situation during the mtaji stage, a player must take a hole from the front row and sow it to the left or right. During this move, captures are not allowed, exactly as in the namua stage. If there are no occupied holes in the front row, a hole from the back row may be sown instead. As always, a player may never start a move by sowing a singleton hole.
If there is a hole that is the only mtaji left available to the opponent (mtaji moja — "one mtaji"), that hole may not be sown by the opponent in a takasa situation; the opponent must instead sow a different hole from the front row (or, if none is available, from the back row).
Notation
To facilitate writing down moves, a notation system was designed in cooperation with Bao masters. Every hole has a number, one to eight, for every row. The front row is called "A" (or "a" for the opponent), the back row is "B" (or "b" for the opponent) — the difference between capital and lowercase letters is the difference between the two players, as with the two colors in Chess.
- L means playing to the left; R means playing to the right.
- > means that the seeds of the nyumba are sown.
- * means that there is no capturing (a takasa move).
Numbering runs 1 to 8 from the left on each row, for both the front row and the back row, mirrored for each player's side.
Examples:
A5R>— a seed is put in the fifth hole from the left on the front row, capturing the opposing seeds, and those captured seeds are entered sowing from the right, including sowing of the nyumba.A3R*— the seeds in the third hole from the left of the front row are sown to the right, because no capturing was possible (takasa).
Glossary
(Terms as recorded by Alex de Voogt in Limits of the Mind*.)*
- Bao — 1. the game of Bao; 2. the board; 3. a goal (as scored in soccer).
- Bao Hamna — 1. victory; 2. clearance of the front row (hamna = "there is not").
- kete — the seed(s) used in Bao, traditionally from the Mkomwe tree.
- kimbi — the second and seventh hole in the front row.
- kichwa — 1. the far-end hole on either side of a row; 2. "head".
- mkononi — "in the hand"; a victory within 22 moves (44 turns) achieved while some kete have not yet been brought into the game (i.e. a win during namua).
- Piga Tanji — to attack several houses (holes) at the same time.
- singleton — a hole containing only one seed.
- takasa (or takata) — to play without capturing.
- takasia — to play without capturing while forcing the opponent to also play without capturing, after which it becomes possible to capture.
Literature
The acknowledged primary source for this rulebook:
- de Voogt, Alexander J., 1995. Limits of the Mind: towards a characterisation of Bao masterhip. Research School CNWS, Leiden. Thesis, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden. ISBN 90-7378249-X.
Other general books on Bao and Mancala referenced by the source article:
- Béart, C., 1955. Jeux en jouets de l'Ouest Africain. Dakar.
- Murray, H. J. R., 1952. A History of Boardgames other than Chess. London.
- Russ, L., 1984. Mancala Games. Michigan.
- Townshend, P., 1979. Anthropological Perspectives on Bao (Mnkala) Games. University of Nairobi, Institute of African Studies Paper 114, Nairobi.
- de Voogt, A. J., 1997. Mancala Board Games. British Museum Press. ISBN 0-7141-2536-9. London.