Kalah

Kalah, also called Kalaha or Mancala, is a game in the mancala family invented by William Julius Champion Jr (USA) in 1940. This game heavily favors the starting player, who will always win the three-seed to six-seed versions with perfect play. This game is sometimes also called "Kalahari", possibly by false etymology from the Kalahari desert in Namibia.

As the most popular and commercially available variant of mancala in the West, Kalah is also sometimes referred to as Warri or Awari, although those names more properly refer to the game Oware.

An electronic version of the game, called Bantumi, was included on the Nokia 3310. The handset went on to sell 126 million units making Bantumi the best selling version of the game.

Equipment

The game requires a Kalah board and 89 seeds or counters. The board has 12 small pits, called houses, on each side; and a big pit, called an end zone , at each end. Many games sold commercially come with 90 seeds or counters, and the game is started with four seeds in each house.