Pallanguzhi is played across southern India, most famously in Tamil Nadu, on a two-row wooden board with fourteen cups. Tamarind seeds, cowrie shells or small stones are used. Collecting four counters in one pit — a "cow" — captures them permanently.
Variant implemented
Tamil Nadu Pallanguzhi, 2×7 pits with 6 counters each, multi-lap sowing, capture on making four ("pasu"/cow) and by landing past an empty pit; played in rounds.
Board and pieces
A two-row wooden board with fourteen cups, often ornately carved. Tamarind seeds, cowrie shells or small stones are used.
Setup
Six counters in each cup — 84 in total.
Turn
Pick up a cup on your side and sow anticlockwise, one counter per cup. When your last counter is dropped, look at the next cup: if it holds counters, pick them up and continue.
Capture and scoring
Two ways. Any cup that reaches exactly four counters as you drop into it is a "cow" (pasu) and is captured immediately by whoever dropped it. Separately, when the cup after your last counter is empty, you capture whatever sits in the cup beyond it and your turn ends.
Win condition
The round ends when a player cannot move; remaining counters go to the owner of that side. Most counters wins.
Draw condition
Equal counts are a draw.
Special rules
This implementation plays a single round. The traditional game continues over several rounds in which players refill cups with six counters and short cups become "rubbish cups" (pullu) that are skipped. That multi-round structure is a planned addition and its absence is stated on the game page.
Computer opponent
Alpha-beta search, with the evaluation dominated by captured counters and the immediate threat of completing a cow.