Kalah is a two-player sowing game of the mancala family, played on a board of two rows of six small pits plus a larger store pit at each end, in which players sow seeds counterclockwise around the board from a chosen pit and try to capture seeds and accumulate them in their own store to win. It was invented by William Julius Champion Jr. in the United States and patented in 1940, drawing on the much older and widespread mancala family of counting and sowing games found across Africa and Asia, and it became one of the best-known commercially marketed mancala variants in North America and Europe.
Facts
Originating Region Classification
Player Count Sport
Game Type (category) Connections
Associated With
Derived From
Mancala, Games Kalah, created by William Julius Champion Jr. in the 1940s, is a specific modern member of the traditional mancala family of sowing games; same citation shape as the atlas's existing Oware/Bao/Congkak/Sungka -> Mancala edges.
Source The Oxford History of Board Games
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Kalah - Wikipedia
References, footnote 2
US Expired 2720362A, William J Champion, "Game Counter", published 1955-10-11
Lead section, second sentence
The Kalah board was first patented and sold in the United States by William Julius Champion, Jr. in the 1950s.
Lead section, first sentence
Kalah is a modern variation in the ancient Mancala family of games.
Board section, houses and stores
The board has 6 small pits, called houses, on each side; and a big pit, called an end zone or store, at each end.
Standard gameplay section, capture rule
If the last sown seed lands in an empty house owned by the player, and the opposite house contains seeds, both the last seed and the opposite seeds are captured and placed in the player's store.
Standard gameplay section, initial setup
At the beginning of the game, four seeds are placed in each house.
entity record, description lead (player-count)
Kalah is a two-player sowing game of the mancala family, played on a board of two rows of six small pits plus a larger store pit at each end, in which players sow seeds counterclockwise around the board from a chosen pit and try to capture seeds and accumulate them in their own store to win. It was invented by William Julius Champion Jr. in the United States and patented in 1940, drawing
Associated With: Mancala, Opening paragraph, first sentence
Kalah is a modern variation in the ancient Mancala family of games.
View the SourceUS2720362A Game counter, William J. Champion, Google Patents
Description, opening sentenceQuote, Description, opening sentence
This invention relates to a new and improved game board for playing the game of Kalah or Mop-up.
Wikidata: Kalah
Wikidata Q1721933, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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