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Reversi

England, 1883. Two men claimed to have invented it.

Who moves first?

You don't need an account or an email, and there's nothing to install. You'll get a link to send to the person you want to play.

How to play

The board

The board is eight squares by eight. It's empty except for four discs already in the middle.
There are two of each colour, and discs of the same colour sit diagonally from each other.

Placing a disc

On your turn you put one disc on an empty square.
It has to trap at least one straight line of enemy discs between the disc you place and another of your own.
A placement that traps nothing is not a legal move.

Turning discs

Every enemy disc in a trapped line turns over to your colour.
Lines run in all eight directions, diagonals included.
One move can trap lines in several directions at once, and all of them turn.
No disc is ever taken off the board. A disc you lose stays where it is and shows the other colour.

When you cannot move

If you have no legal placement, your turn is skipped and your opponent plays again.
You don't lose because of it. The game carries on until neither of you can move.

Winning

The game ends when neither player has a legal move, which is usually a full board.
Whoever has more discs showing their colour wins.
An equal count is a draw.

Which rules do we use?

Reversi on an eight by eight board, with the four opening discs already placed.

Reversi and Othello are two names for the same game. Othello is a trademark and reversi is the older name, so we call it reversi.

The oldest form of the game and the modern one differ in one way. We play it the modern way.

The opening: The four centre discs are set for you. In the oldest reversi the players placed the first four themselves, anywhere on the middle four squares. That made the start of a game a small game of its own.

After that, both forms play the same. A player with no legal move misses a turn and doesn't lose, and the discs are counted at the end.

Reversi is the older, untrademarked name for the game usually sold as Othello.

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