Bao Page

Bao is a mancala game that is played in different variants in the eastern part of Africa. It is considered as one of the most complex variants of mancala.

Some links and introductions to Bao:

• Bao page at Manqala wiki
• Bao rules testing page at Manqala wiki
• Limits of the Mind, Ph.D. thesis by Alexander de Voogt on Zanzibar Bao (out of print).
• My interpretation of Zanzibar Bao rules.
• Bao rules at game-cabinet.
• Bao rules by Viktor Bautista i Roca.
• John Benschop's Bao page at Mediaplaza.
• Theory of infinite moves in Bao.
• Play Bao with an applet

Bao 0.1

I am in the process of writing a competition-level program that plays the Zanzibar version of Bao. You can download the fully functional demonstration version of this program here. The strength of this demonstration version is limited, but it plays the game correctly. Besides, the program can be used to analyse recorded games. Bao 0.1 is tested for Windows 95/98/ME/2000.

Installation instructions

Simply unpack the zip file and start Bao.exe. The program includes the rules, user instruction and sample games.

Bao 0.1 screen shot.

If you also want to write a Bao program, you are free to use my sample code that includes the execution of Bao moves, according to the rules. The code is in Borland Delphi 5.0, but I am sure that it is easily converted into C or Java.

Remarks to: Jeroen Donkers,