What is Ayoayo?
Ayoayo is a mancala game of the Yoruba people, played on the same board as Oware: two rows of six pits, four seeds in each, 48 seeds in all. You still lift all the seeds of one of your pits and sow them anticlockwise, one per pit, but the way a move goes on and the way you capture are different.
Sowing goes on in relays. If your last seed lands in a pit that already held seeds, on either side of the board, you lift everything in that pit and keep sowing from the next pit. A lap of twelve seeds or more skips the pit it was lifted from. The move ends only when the last seed falls into an empty pit.
If that empty pit is in your own row and the pit directly across, in your opponent's row, holds seeds, you capture them together with your capturing seed. A move that ends in an empty pit of the opponent's row, or across from an empty pit, captures nothing. A move captures at most one pit, but a long relay can carry seeds all around the board, so working a move through to its end is the main skill of the game.
The first player to capture 25 seeds wins. When a player cannot move, the game ends and every seed left on the board goes to their opponent, so emptying the opponent's row with a capture usually wins the game.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Oware | Ayoayo |
|---|---|---|
| Sowing | Standard OwareSow the seeds of one pit anticlockwise, one per pit; the move ends with the last seed. Twelve seeds or more skip the starting pit. | AyoayoIf the last seed lands in an occupied pit, lift that pit and keep sowing. The move ends when the last seed lands in an empty pit. Each lap skips only the pit it was lifted from. |
| Captures | Standard OwareYour last seed makes a pit in the opponent's row hold 2 or 3 seeds: you capture it and the unbroken run of 2s and 3s before it. | AyoayoYour last seed lands in an empty pit of your own row: you capture the seeds in the pit across, plus your capturing seed. Nothing is captured in the opponent's row. |
| Capturing a whole row | Standard OwareA move whose capture would take every seed in the opponent's row captures nothing, or follows the grand-slam rule chosen in the setup. | AyoayoNo grand-slam rule. A capture that empties the opponent's row stands, and since they cannot move, the game ends. |
| Endless moves | Standard OwareCannot happen: a move sows the seeds of one pit and stops. | AyoayoA relay that comes back to a position it has already reached would go round forever, so it is not a legal move. |
| Feeding | Standard OwareIf your opponent's row is empty, you must play a move that sows seeds into it, if you have one. | AyoayoThe same: if your opponent's row is empty, your move must leave seeds in it once the sowing and capture are done. |
| End of the game | Standard OwareThe first player to capture 25 seeds wins, and 24 each is a draw. When the player to move has no legal move, each player takes the seeds on their own side. | AyoayoThe same 25-seed win and 24–24 draw. When a player cannot move, all the seeds left on the board go to their opponent. |
History
Mancala games are played by the Yoruba of Nigeria and neighbouring countries under the name Ayo, and written sources describe more than one set of rules for it. The relay form on this page, often called Ayoayo, keeps the two rows of six pits and four seeds per pit of Oware but replaces Oware's single lap and its captures of twos and threes with relay sowing and captures across the board.
The rules used here follow Laurence Russ's book Mancala Games (1984), on which most later descriptions of Ayoayo draw. Other accounts differ in two details: some leave the capturing seed on the board, and some give the seeds left at the end of the game to the player on whose side they lie rather than to the opponent of the player who cannot move.