How to Play Othello

Reversi/Othello is a a two player board game. Online versions of this game can be played as multiplayer (two) or played against the computer. This game is available in the Games->Board Games section of CoolGamesLive.com or click here .

Objective

Capture as much as Round chips as possible in the players own color. The Player choosen to play Black aims to capure most of the white chips and the Vice-versa, the player chosen to play White aims to capure most of the Black coins.

Board Layout

The Board is divided into sixty-four squares. All the squares are colored with the same color. Round chips with black on one side and white on the other side are used to the play the game. There are sixty-four of the Round chips and each player gets thirty-two. One player chooses Black and the other white.

Game description

The Players place two chips each in the center of the board, with their respective colors top. Black places the chips showing Black and similarly white places the chips white. White starts the Play. Each Player alternatively places one chip in any place of the board. The chips captured inbetween his colored chips are converted to his own color. If there are two black chips between the newly placed white chip and existing white chip on the board, the Black chips are fliped to white, meaning the chips are captured by white. Similary any number of chips in between a newly placed black chip and an exiting black chip will all be fliped ti black, indicating they are captured by 'Black' Player. The game is continued till all the sixty-four chips are placed on the board. The player who has more chips of his chosen color is the winner. If the there are more whites facing top then the White Player wins and the Vice-Versa.

Rules

1. The users may place a chip on board only if he can capture one or more opponents chips on the board, this is the only legal turn

2. If the users is not able to capture, he may pass the turn, until he will be able to make a capture

3. The game may end when all the sixty-four chips are on the board or neither of the players is able to have a legal turn

Strategy, Skills and Tactics

The winning strategy for this game is not to make the maximum capture in each move. For example, your opponent had his chip in the first row and if you had your chip on the second row and on your turn you wish to place your chip on the last but one row so you have a maximum capture of Six, there are more chances that your opponent wll be able to place his chip in the last row to capture all the eight.

So the winning strategy is to get the corners and sides as possible, more your coins are to the corner and the opponent will not be able to capture. The person who covers three corners has almost all chances to win.

Last update : 09-12-2007 21:43