Games - Reversi

	Games - Reversi

Reversi and Othello are names for a strategic boardgame which involves play by two parties on an eight-by-eight square grid with pieces that have two distinct sides. Pieces typically appear coin-like, with a light and a dark face.

Origins

The game derives from two different sources.

Reversi was originally invented around 1880 by two Englishmen, Lewis Waterman and John W. Mollett, and gained considerable popularity in England at the end of the 19th century. In 1898, the well-known German games publisher Ravensburger started producing the game as one of its first titles.

The modern rule set, now universally accepted (except by those who know only the still-produced Ravensburger edition) originated in Japan as Othello in the 1970s.

Mattel produces Reversi equipment under the name Othello. Anjar Co licenses the registered trademark Othello from Tsukuda Original.

Goro Hasegawa, who wrote How to win at Othello, popularised the game in Japan in 1975.

It took its name from the Shakespearean play Othello, the Moor of Venice.

Play

Each of the two sides corresponds to one player; they are referred to here as light and dark after the sides of Othello pieces, but "heads" and "tails" would identify them equally as well, so long as each marker has sufficiently distinctive sides.

Originally, Reversi did not have a defined starting position. Later it adopted Othello's rules, which state that the game begins with four markers placed in a square in the middle of the grid, two facing light-up, two pieces with the dark side up. The dark player makes the first move.

Dark must place a piece with the dark side up on the board, in such a position that there exists at least one straight (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) line between the new piece and another dark piece, with one or more contiguous light pieces between them. In the above situation, dark has the following options indicated by "ghost" pieces:

After placing the piece, dark turns over (flips, captures) all light pieces lying on a straight line between the new piece and any anchoring dark pieces. All reversed pieces now show the dark side, and dark can use them in later moves -- unless light has reversed them back in the meantime.

If dark decided to put a piece in the topmost location (all choices are strategically equivalent at this time), one piece gets turned over, so that the board appears thus:

Now light plays. This player operates under the same rules, with the roles reversed: light lays down a light piece, causing one or more dark pieces to flip. Possiblities at this time appear thus (indicated by "ghosts"):

Light takes the bottom left option and reverses one piece:

Players take alternate turns. If one player cannot make a valid move, play passes back to the other player. When neither player can move, the game ends. This occurs when the grid has filled up, or when one player has no more pieces on the board. The player with more pieces in the board at the end wins.

Strategy

The game pieces flip very quickly, easily and (often) repeatedly, so it offers little advantage -- and in fact typically becomes disadvantageous -- to try to gain a majority of pieces early in the game. Corners, mobility, edge play, parity, endgame play and look-ahead form the key elements of successful Othello strategy.

Corners

Corner positions, once played, remain immune to flipping for the rest of the game: thus a player can use a piece in a corner of the board to anchor groups of pieces (starting with the adjacent edges) permanently. So capturing a corner often proves an effective strategy when the opportunity arises. More generally, a piece is stable when, in all four directions, it is on a boundary, in a filled row, or next to a stable piece of the same color.

Mobility

An opponent playing with reasonable strategy will not so easily relinquish the corner or any other good moves. So to achieve these good moves, you must force your opponent to play moves which relinquish those good moves. The best way to achieve that involves reducing the number of moves available to your opponent. If you consistently restrict the number of legal moves your opponent can make, then sooner or later they will have to make an undesirable move. An ideal position involves having all your pieces in the center surrounded by your opponent's pieces. In such situations you can dictate what moves your opponent can make.

When moves seem equal with respect to what moves you will leave yourself and your opponent, playing a minimum piece strategy will tend to give you an advantage, because minimizing your discs will tend to leave fewer discs for your opponent to flip in subsequent moves of the game. One should not play the minimum disc strategy to an extreme, however, as this also can quickly lead to a lack of mobility.

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