Reversi
Outflank your opponent's discs to flip them, claim the most on the board. Play the AI or a friend.
Outflank your opponent's discs to flip them, claim the most on the board. Play the AI or a friend.
Learn how Reversi (Othello) works and the strategy that separates beginners from strong players, then play the board above.
Reversi, sold as Othello, is played on an 8x8 board with two-sided discs. You want to finish with the most discs of your colour showing.
A disc in a corner can never be flipped, and it anchors whole edges. Take corners when you can and avoid giving them away.
The squares diagonally adjacent to a corner (the X-squares) often hand the corner to your opponent. Play them only with a clear plan.
Counterintuitively, having fewer discs in the midgame is often good. It gives you more available moves and forces your opponent into bad ones. This is called mobility.
Flips late in the game are permanent because there is no time to reverse them. Aim to control the final moves in each region.
Place a disc so it traps a straight line of your opponent's discs between the new disc and another of your own, then all trapped discs flip to your colour. Every move must flip at least one disc. When neither player can move, the player with the most discs showing wins.
Yes. Othello is the trademarked commercial version of the classic game Reversi. The rules are essentially identical, including the fixed starting position of four discs in the centre.
Prioritise corners because they can never be flipped, avoid the squares next to corners that give the corner away, and value mobility over disc count in the midgame. Having fewer discs early often gives you more good moves later.
Holding a large lead in the middle of the game is often a weakness in Reversi. It reduces your available moves and lets your opponent flip many discs late, when flips are hard to reverse. Focus on position and corners rather than the disc count.