tags: #publish links: [[Board Games]] created: 2020-09-29 Tue --- # Othello / Reversi Played with counters that are black on one side and white on the other, on an 8x8 board. Start with a 2x2 diagonal pattern of black and white in the centre. One player places counters black side up, one white. Objective is to finish with the most counters in your colour. Each move, place one counter such that it "captures" one or more unbroken lines of opponent's counters between two counters of your colour - the captured counters are flipped over to your colour. Play continues until no more moves are possible for either player, often when the board is full. ## Strategy - Aim to win the corners. These are extremely valuable permanent outposts, because they can never be surrounded and captured. - Then win territory around them, which can also be permanent. - Aim to win the edges - they are also harder to flip. - You can only flip edges by capturing adjacent edge squares. This risks giving the opponent and opportunity to win the corner. Placing pieces a couple of steps from the corner becomes risky and can lead to forcing moves or capture of the corner. - "Fork" moves are possible where you have two good options and the opponent can only block one of them. - To facilitate either forking or capturing many pieces in one move, aim to have pieces which have multiple lines of attack.