othello

Othello ble oppfunnet av japaneren Goro Hasegawa på 1970-tallet. Spillet har mange likhetstrekk med Reversi, som oppstod på slutten av 1800-tallet.

The object of the game is to have the majority of your colour discs on the board at the end of the game.

A MINUTE TO LEARN…

Each player takes 32 discs and chooses one colour to use throughout the game. Black places two black discs and White placese two white discs as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The game always begins with this setup.

A move consists of «outflanking» your opponent’s disc(s), then flipping the outflanked disc(s)to your colour. 
To outflank means to place a disc on the board so that your opponent’s row (or rows) of disc(s) is bordered at each
end by a disc of your colour. (A «row» may be made up of one or more discs).

Here’s one example:

White disc A was already in place on the board. The placement of white disc B outflanks the row of three black discs.
White flips the outflanked discs and now the row looks like this:

OTHELLO RULES

1. Black always moves first.

2. If on your turn you cannot outflank and flip at least one opposing disk, your turn is forfeited and your opponent moves
again. However, if a move is available to you, you may not forfeit your turn. 

Figure 2: Disk placed

Figure 3: These disks flipped

4. Players may not skip over their own colour disk(s) to outflank an opposing disk. (See Figure 4).

Figure 3: This disk outflanks and flips White disk 1 ONLY.

5. Disk(s) may only be outflanked as a direct result of a move and must fall in the direct line of the disk placed down.
(See Figures 5 and 6).

Figure 5: Disk placed here

Figure 6: These 2 disk flipped. Disks 1 and 2 are not flipped (even though they appear to be outflanked)..

6. All disks outflanked in any one move must be flipped, even if it is to the player’s advantage not to flip them at all. 

7. Once a disk is placed on a square, it can never be moved to another square later in the game. 

8. When it is no longer possible for either player to move, the game is over. Disks are counted and the player with the majority of their colour showing is the winner.

Note: It is possible for a game to end before all 64 squares are filled.

This is the basic Othello games rules. Strategy, tactics, Othello study help, you will find at our Othello strategy pages.

SAMPLE GAME

Black always moves first. A black disk can be placed on square C4, D3, E6 or F5 to outflank a white disk. Black decides to place a disk on square C4.
(See figure 7).

Figure 7

The outflanked white disk between the two black disks is flipped over.
(See Figure 8).

Figure 8

It is now White’s turn. A white disk can be placed on square C3; E3 or C5 to outflank a black disk. White decides to place a disk on C3. (See Figure 9).

Figure 9

The outflanked black disk between the two white disks is flipped over. (See Figure 10). 

Figure 10

The game continues in this way until neither player can move. The player with the most disks at this point is the winner.