⚫ Reversi

About this game

Reversi, sold for decades under the name Othello, takes about a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, which is the marketing line and also true. Place a disc so that you trap a line of your opponent between the new disc and another of yours, and every disc in between flips to your colour. Whoever owns more discs when the board fills wins.

The game is famous for how fast a winning position can collapse. Because every move flips discs, holding a big lead in the middle of the game means almost nothing. Beginners chase the largest flip available each turn and then watch it all reverse in the final few moves. The whole skill is learning why the obvious move is usually wrong.

Controls

Tips & strategy

Do not grab discs early. The counterintuitive truth of Reversi is that having fewer discs in the opening is often better, because it leaves your opponent with fewer safe moves and forces them to hand you the squares you actually want. Aim to have few discs but good ones around the midgame.

The corners decide games. A disc in a corner can never be flipped, because there is no square beyond it to complete a trap. Every strong plan is built around taking corners and avoiding the squares next to them, which would hand your opponent the corner in reply.

Treat the squares diagonally adjacent to empty corners as poison. Playing there gives your opponent the flip that lets them occupy the corner, and a lost corner tends to cost a whole edge with it. If you can avoid touching those squares, do.

Think about mobility, meaning how many legal moves you have. If you can reach a position where your opponent has only one or two possible moves, you effectively choose their play for them. Restricting the opponent is usually worth more than any number of discs flipped this turn.