O An Quan — a beginner's guide (English)

O An Quan ("Mandarin Square Capturing") is Vietnam's beloved mancala-style folk game. The board is a ring of 12 pits (2-player game): 10 small dân (citizen) pits and 2 large quan (mandarin) pits. Each dân pit holds 5 stones; each quan pit holds 1 quan stone, and by the standard rule 1 quan = 10 dân. Your quan is the one to your right; turns go clockwise.

Sowing: on your turn, pick up all the stones from one of your dân pits and sow one stone per pit in a freely chosen direction (you choose the direction at every pickup). Relay: if the pit right after your last-sown stone is an occupied dân pit, pick it up and keep sowing — you never pick up from a quan pit.

Captures: if the pit right after your last-sown stone is empty, and the pit beyond that holds stones, you capture all of them — and chain further captures ("ăn chuyền") as long as the empty-then-occupied pattern continues.

Quan-non rule: a quan pit can only be captured when it contains the quan plus at least 5 dân; an "immature" quan is untouchable.

Reseeding: if your whole side is empty, you must re-seed 5 stones from your captured pile into each empty dân pit of yours, borrowing from your opponent if short (settled at scoring).

Game end: the game ends when both quan are captured. Remaining dân on each side go to that side's player, but dân left sitting in the quan pits counts for nobody. Quan = 10 dân each; highest score wins.

Tip: keep your quan "mature" (≥5 dân) — an immature quan that gets captured costs you a full 10 points. Always count where your last sown stone lands: one empty pit in the right place opens a capture chain, one in the wrong place hands a capture to your opponent.

Play free at oanquan.synerworlds.com — vs-computer with a 12-level ladder, 2–4 player games, and daily puzzles. No install needed.

Related guides

• Ca Ngua — a beginner's guide — the family horse-racing board game.
• Co Ganh — a beginner's guide — Vietnam's "carry and trap" folk game on a 5×5 board.
• Co Nhao — a beginner's guide — leap-capture folk game on a 5×5 board.

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🇹🇭 The Thai cousin: if you enjoy sowing games, try Mak Khom (หมากขุม) — the Thai folk sowing game with kin thaen opposite captures, free to play at makkhom.synerworlds.com.

Read next: play Ô Ăn Quan better

• Ô Ăn Quan strategy: count the seeds, chain the captures, never let your land burn
• Ô Ăn Quan vs Mak Khom: one mancala family, two philosophies of sowing