The hole you sowed from, hole c, is now empty. You do not leave a seed in it. It would be different if you sowed from a hole that had so many seeds in it that it went all the way round the board. If that happened you would eventually get back to the hole you started from and sow a seed in it.

Note - in tournament play there is also another sort of move allowed at the start of the game, up until the point where the first capture is made. If you are sowing exactly three seeds from a hole, you may sow first one seed and then separately the other two. So two seeds end up having travelled to the adjacent hole and one to the hole beyond. There are certain restrictions on this.

Now Upper chooses to sow the three seeds in hole G. These go one each into holes F, E and D. Because the hole where this ends - D - was not empty, Upper's move does not stop there!

Before Upper's move	After sowing three seeds

The last seed fell in hole D. Because it was not empty, Upper now has to pick up and sow all the seeds in this hole. This is known as relay sowing.

Upper picks up the seeds from hole D. There are five of these - four that were there before the move began, and the one which came from hole G. Upper now sows these five seeds, starting at hole C. So they go one each into C, B, A, I and J. Because the last seed falls in an empty hole, Upper's move now stops.

The next picture compares the position right at the start of Upper's move with the position at the end of it.

Before Upper's move	After the whole move

A move can go on for several sowings if the last seed of each one keeps falling in an occupied hole.

Now suppose that you play next from hole f and then Upper plays from hole A. See if you can work out what the resulting position should be. Check below to see if you are right.

Before you move f	After Upper moves A

Now it is your move again. Let's check the position we have got to.

Your move again

You are going to be able to capture some seeds now!

Look at holes M and E. They are both on the same side (Upper's side) of the board, one in front of the other, and both have seeds. When two holes are set up like this, there may be a chance you can capture something.

In order to capture the seeds in the two holes, you have to have seeds in the hole in your front row which lines up with them. Here that is hole d, and it has some seeds in, so you might be in luck.

What you have got to do is make a sowing that finishes in hole d. Then you will capture all the seeds in M and E. Here you could do that by sowing from hole g. The three seeds from g go into f, e and then d. But this is not the end of your move - you will carry on with the captured seeds.

Before your move	After sowing three seeds

Now you capture all the seeds from M and E. You actually pick up all the six seeds from these holes, and use them to carry on your move. The seeds in hole d, even though that is where the sowing ended, must be left where they are.

You now sow these six seeds from the same hole where the previous sowing started, which was g. You sow the seeds just as if you had picked them up from g, so they go into holes f, e, d, c, b and a. Remember that you don't sow a seed into g itself! The last seed falls into a. As a was not empty, you carry on with your move. You pick up all the seeds from a, including the one you just added, and sow them. The last one falls into the empty hole o, so your turn ends.

This next diagram shows the position before the start of your move, and after your move is all finished. See if you can remember how to get from one position to the other.

There is one special restriction to remember about capturing. Neither player is allowed to capture any seeds on their first move of the game. If they make a move which would normally capture some seeds, instead they just carry on sowing as if it was a non-capturing move.

Before your move	After the whole move

You can capture pieces at any stage of a move. There may be several sowings in one move; some of these could be making captures while others are not.

Almost all moves in Omweso are anti-clockwise. But you can sometimes sow seeds clockwise to make a capture. You are only allowed to do this when sowing from one of the four holes on your far left. As you are Lower in this game, that means the holes a, b, i and j.

You can make a reverse capture if sowing from one of these holes at the start of your move, or just after sowing anti-clockwise into one of them, or just after making another reverse capture. But you can not make a reverse capture if the reason you are starting from one of these four holes is that you just made a normal anti-clockwise capture starting from there.

Let's go back to the position just before you captured seven seeds. Here it is again.

Your move

Here you could have made a clockwise move from hole a. This would finish in the occupied hole g and capture the seeds in B and J. This is known as a reverse capture. As with an ordinary capture, your move is going to continue with the captured seeds.

Before your move	After sowing six seeds

This move carries on in the same way as a normal capture. Again you must leave the seeds in hole g, even though this is where the sowing ended. Instead you take the seven seeds captured from holes B and J.

You now sow these seeds from the same hole where the previous sowing started, which was a. You sow the seeds just as if you had picked them up from a. These seeds can't make another reverse capture as h and A are empty. So you have to sow anti-clockwise. The seeds go into holes i, j, k, l, m, n and o. and a. As the last one falls into the empty hole o, your turn ends.

Here is the board as it looks right at the start of this move, and after the whole move is finished. Check that you can follow what happened.

Before your move	After the whole move

From this position Upper could play five seeds from E, finishing in I. And then play the three seeds from I (two plus the one just added) clockwise. This is allowed because it would finish in C, making a reverse capture of two seeds. These two seeds could then be used for another reverse capture! See if you can work that out for yourself.

You can play reverse captures at any stage in your move, as long as you start from one of the leftmost four holes (a, b, i and j if you are Lower). But other sowings in the move, unless they are also reverse captures, must be anti-clockwise as usual.

There are several ways to win the game.

The usual way to win is to make a move that leaves your opponent with no possible moves. In other words they must be left with only singletons (holes with just one seed) and empty holes.

If in one move you capture seeds from both ends of the board, then you have won. So if you are Lower, then to do this you have to capture from A & I and H & P all in the same move. This way of winning is sometimes called emitwe-ebiri.

A third way of winning is called akakyala. You win by capturing seeds on two separate moves before your opponent has captured any. In some competitions this way of winning does not count.

If you manage to capture seeds from all 16 holes on your opponent's side of the board in the same turn, that counts as a very special type of victory. It is called akawumbi and it counts equal to several normal victories. But it is very unlikely to happen!