How to play Reversi
- Choose to play the computer (Easy, Medium or Hard) or a friend on the same screen. Black always moves first.
- Place a disc so that one or more of the other color’s discs sit in a straight line between it and another of yours. Those discs flip to your color. The dots show where you can play.
- If you can’t make a move, your turn passes. When neither side can move, the player with more discs wins.
Tips for winning
- Take the corners first. A corner disc can’t be flipped, and an unbroken row of your discs running from it along an edge can’t be flipped either.
- Stay off the X squares. The squares diagonally next to an empty corner hand that corner to your opponent. The squares beside a corner on the edges are risky too.
- Flip fewer discs early. In the opening it’s usually better to flip few discs and keep your options open. Having many moves to choose from matters more than having many discs.
- Count discs at the end. In the last ten or so moves, every flip counts. Work out how many discs each move really gains, including what your opponent can flip back.
About the game
Reversi dates from 19th-century England and became popular worldwide as Othello, the modern version with the four-disc start, from the 1970s. It’s played on an 8 by 8 board with 64 discs that are black on one side and white on the other. Here you can play the computer at three levels, with move hints you can turn off, unlimited undo, and your game and results kept on this device.