What is Wari?
Wari is Oware played with a stricter grand-slam rule. A grand slam is a move whose capture would take every seed in the opponent's row. In Wari such a move is illegal as long as you have any other legal move, so you must choose a move that leaves your opponent something to play with.
Everything else is the standard game, Abapa. The board has two rows of six pits with four seeds in each. You lift all the seeds of one of your pits and sow them anticlockwise, one per pit, and a sowing of twelve seeds or more skips the pit it started from. When your last seed makes a pit in the opponent's row hold two or three seeds, you capture it, together with the unbroken run of pits holding two or three just before it. You must give seeds to an opponent whose row is empty if you can, and the first player to capture 25 seeds wins.
The rule seldom matters in the opening, but it shapes the endgame. In Abapa a grand slam is allowed and simply captures nothing, so it can serve as a quiet move that sows seeds into the opponent's row. In Wari that move is off the table. When a grand slam is the only legal move, you must play it and it captures: your opponent is left without seeds and cannot move, so the game ends and you also take the seeds left on your own side.
The table setup also offers a third grand-slam rule, in which the slam captures the whole row. The capturer then moves again and must give the opponent seeds; if no move can, the game ends and the capturer takes the seeds left on their side.
Rule changes
| Rule | Standard Oware | Wari |
|---|---|---|
| Grand slam | Standard OwareAllowed, but it captures nothing: the seeds are sown and stay on the board. | WariForbidden while you have any other legal move. |
| When a grand slam is the only move | Standard OwareYou play it and capture nothing. | WariYou play it and capture the whole row. Your opponent cannot move, so the game ends and you also take the seeds on your own side. |
| Other 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. | WariThe same. |
| Feeding | Standard OwareIf your opponent's row is empty, you must play a move that sows seeds into it, if you have one. | WariThe same. |
| 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. | WariThe same, and a forced grand slam ends the game at once. |
History
Oware belongs to the mancala family of sowing games, which are played across Africa. It is known by many names, among them Awalé in Côte d'Ivoire and Wari in Mali, and it was carried to the Caribbean by enslaved West Africans, where it is still played as Warri in Antigua and Barbados. The rules vary from place to place, and the grand slam is one of the points on which they differ most.
The standard rules on this site are Abapa, the rule set most widely used in tournaments, under which a grand slam is a legal move that captures nothing. Written rules of Wari often forbid the move instead unless it is the only move left, while Caribbean Warri lets a grand slam capture the whole row. The table setup here lets you choose any of the three.