Tsoro

1. Your player. Your name and avatar (or photo or selfie) are saved on this phone. Change them any time in Profile.
2. Main menu. Play New Game starts a match, Resume Game lists games you can carry on, Settings changes the look and Profile shows your record.
3. Set up a match. In Play New Game choose the game mode (Classic or Winner Takes All), your opponent (Computer, Pass and play, or Online friend), the board size (4 × 2 to 12 × 2), seeds per hole (1 to 10), the counters, the computer level and the speed. Then tap Start match.
4. Your turn. Your holes glow when it is your turn. Tap one and the hand sows the seeds for you. Your side is always the bottom two rows.
5. Buttons. Pause stops the game (tap Play to carry on), Undo takes back your last move against the computer, Rules opens this page and Menu saves and leaves. The sliders icon at the top opens Settings.
6. Series. In Match details pick Best of 3, 5 or 7 to play a series. The first player to win a majority of games takes it (2 of 3, 3 of 5, 4 of 7). Players take turns to start each game, and the score shows at the top of the board.
7. Forfeit. The flag at the top gives up the current game and records it as a loss. In a series you can forfeit one game or the whole series. Online, your opponent is told straight away.
8. Save and continue later. Every game saves after each move. Pick it up from Resume Game; old games can be deleted there.
9. Suggestions. Have an idea or found a problem? Go to Profile → Suggest an improvement.
10. Your look. In Settings choose the board theme, Dark, Light or Match phone appearance, a background (or your own photo), seeds, pebbles, shells or marbles, the hole size, the hand and the speed.

1. What you need. Both players have Tsoro installed and an internet connection.
2. Create a game. Play New Game → choose the mode and board → Online friend → Create game. Tap Share code to send the 8-character code (for example K7PQ-2A9M) by WhatsApp or SMS.
3. Join a game. Play New Game → Online friend → type the code → Join. The creator's mode and board are used, and the board turns so your side is at the bottom.
4. Chat. Tap the speech bubble. Type your own message, add emoji with 😊, or tap a quick phrase. ✎ Edit adds or removes your own phrases.
5. Pause together. Either player can tap Pause; the other player is asked and must agree. Carrying on works the same way. Chat stays open while paused.
6. Dropped out? A short drop reconnects by itself. If the app closed or the phone restarted, go to Resume Game and tap Continue; you return to your own seat on the same board. Typing the same code into Join works too.
7. Your own look. Each player's theme, appearance, background and counters stay their own.
8. Privacy. Moves, chat, names and photos are encrypted with the game code. Only share the code with the person you want to play.

Each player owns the two rows nearest them. Your top row faces your opponent. Seeds always travel anticlockwise around your own two rows: left to right along your bottom row, then right to left along your top row.

1. Sow. Pick any of your holes that has seeds, even one with a single seed. All its seeds are lifted and dropped one at a time into the following holes.
2. Relay. If the last seed lands in a hole that already had seeds, lift that whole hole and keep sowing.
3. Capture. If the last seed lands in your top row in a hole that already had seeds, and the opponent's top-row hole directly across has seeds, take both of their holes in that column (top and bottom). The captured seeds leave the board and count on your score. Your turn ends.
4. Stop. If the last seed lands in an empty hole, your turn ends.
5. Win. A player with no seeds left to move loses. If 50 moves pass with no capture, the player with more seeds on the board wins.

Same board, same anticlockwise sowing, but captured seeds come back into play on your side. The aim is to own every seed.

1. Sow. Pick any of your holes that has seeds, even one with a single seed, and sow them one by one anticlockwise.
2. Relay. If the last seed lands in your bottom row in a hole that already had seeds, lift that whole hole and keep sowing, as in Classic.
3. Take. You may take only when your last seed lands in your top row, in a hole that already had at least one seed (so it now holds two or more), and the opponent's top-row hole facing it has seeds.
4. Take the whole column. You take both of their holes in that column: their top hole and the bottom hole behind it.
5. Sow them on. The taken seeds are not kept aside. Sow them straight away into your own holes, starting from the hole after the one you landed in, still anticlockwise.
6. Chain. When those run out, the same checks apply to where the last one landed: take again, relay from the bottom row, or stop.
7. Stop. Your turn ends when the last seed lands in an empty hole, or in your top row when the opponent's top hole facing it is empty.
8. Win. The game ends when one player owns every seed: the other has nothing left to move. If 80 moves pass with no take, or the game reaches 400 moves, the player with more seeds wins.
9. Tip. Keep your top row empty when you can. Your opponent can only take from you through your top row.