What is Congkak?
Congkak is played on a long board with two rows of seven pits and a store at each end. Every pit starts with seven seeds, 98 in all. You own the seven pits on your side and the store on your left, and you sow clockwise: one seed into each pit, into your own store when you pass it, never into your opponent's.
The heart of the game is relay sowing. When your last seed drops into a pit that already holds seeds, on either side of the board, you pick up everything in that pit and keep sowing. A single move can run several times round the board. It stops only when the last seed lands in your store, which gives you another move, or in an empty pit. An empty pit of your own captures: you take that seed and the seeds in the pit opposite into your store. An empty pit on your opponent's side simply ends your turn.
The game ends as soon as either side has no seeds left. Each player then adds the seeds on their own side to their store, and the bigger store wins.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Mancala | Congkak |
|---|---|---|
| Board | Standard MancalaTwo rows of six pits with a store at each end; your store is on your right. | CongkakTwo rows of seven pits with a store at each end; your store is on your left. |
| Seeds | Standard Mancala4 seeds in each pit, 48 in all. | Congkak7 seeds in each pit, 98 in all. |
| Sowing | Standard MancalaAnticlockwise, through your own store and skipping your opponent's. | CongkakClockwise, through your own store and skipping your opponent's. |
| Last seed in an occupied pit | Standard MancalaYour turn ends. | CongkakPick up every seed in that pit, on either side, and keep sowing. |
| Last seed in an empty pit | Standard MancalaOn your side with seeds opposite: take both. Otherwise your turn ends. | CongkakOn your side: take the seed and the seeds opposite, if any. On your opponent's side: your turn ends. |
| First move | Standard MancalaSouth moves first. | CongkakSouth moves first. Traditionally both players start at the same moment; here the turns alternate from the first move. |
| End of the game | Standard MancalaWhen either side is empty, each player adds their own side's seeds to their store; more seeds wins. | CongkakThe same. Played here as a single round, without the traditional later rounds. |
History
Congkak belongs to a family of mancala games played across Southeast Asia under closely related names: congkak in Malaysia, congklak in Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore, dakon in Java and sungkâ in the Philippines, with relatives in Thailand, Sri Lanka, southern India and the Maldives. Indonesia has the greatest variety of these games, and boards with anywhere from three to nine or more pits a side are known, although seven is the most common. The names are thought to imitate the sound of the seeds, and they came to mean the cowrie shells used to play.
Boards are often carved from wood in an elongated boat shape, with deeper pits than African boards to hold larger seeds such as cowries, pebbles or tamarind seeds. How the game reached the region is not known; one suggestion is that it travelled along Austronesian trade routes with South Asia, where similar games are recorded. Mancala as a whole is much older: the earliest known mancala boards come from a ruined fort of Roman Egypt and date to the 4th century AD.
In the traditional game both players start at once, and play continues over several rounds: each player refills their pits from their store, seven seeds to a pit, and pits a player can no longer fill are burnt and left out, until one player has no pits left. The version here plays a single round with alternating turns.