This game for developing strategic skills was invented at the end of the 19th century. Recently it has come back into fashion.
Game board.
The store-bought boards have 64 game circles connected by lines. But you can play Reversi on 64 squares of a standard chessboard.
Chips.
You will need 64 checkers. Each should have two easily distinguishable front surfaces.
You can make chips yourself:
a) by gluing or drawing symbols (for example, stars or circles) on both surfaces of 64 checkers;
b) by gluing together checkers of two different (for example, black and white) colors, you get a set of double-sided checkers.
Before the start of the game, the participants decide which side of the checkers each will have as their front.
Purpose of the game.
The game ends when all the fields are occupied by checkers; The winner is the player who has the most checkers face up at the end of the game.
Moves.
They are done one by one. With each move, the player tries to place one checker on the board with its color or symbol facing up.
The first four chips.
Each player's first two moves must be on the four central squares of the board, giving four possible starting positions.
How to take checkers.
After placing the first four checkers, each player tries to take turns making a move. Only moves that involve capturing checkers are allowed, and if a player cannot make such a move, he skips it (however, the number of moves each player can make is limited to 32).
Capturing an opponent's checker is accomplished by placing your own checker in such a way that:
a) it ends up on a field adjacent to the field occupied by the opponent’s checker;
b) at least one opponent’s checker is sandwiched in a straight line in any direction between the other player’s checkers. (In the example given, blacks could be placed on squares marked "B" and whites on squares marked "W".)
The captured checker is turned over with the symbol or color of the other player facing up. Throughout the game, a checker can be turned over many times, passing from one player to another. Captured checkers are never removed from the board.
Taking several checkers in a row.
By placing his checker on the board accordingly, the player can take several of the opponent’s checkers that are on the straight line in one move (for example, if Black places a checker on the square indicated in the illustration by the letter “T”).
Note that a checker cannot be taken if the line is closed only after flipping the checker over.
"Ringo"
"Ringo" is a game for two to develop strategic skills. It was invented in Germany; the game is played on a round game board and is somewhat reminiscent of The Fox and the Geese. One of the players (the attacker) tries to capture the central part of the circle, called the “fortress,” while the other player (the defender) tries to repel the attack.
Playing field.
You can draw it on a piece of paper. It looks like a large circle divided into eight equal segments. One of the segments, called the neutral zone, and the circle in the center of the fortress are painted in different colors.
Six concentric circles surround the center, and the resulting sections are alternately colored in light and dark tones (that is, each segment includes three light and three dark sections).
Chips.
Players have sets of tiles (or other suitable items) that are different from each other. The defender has four chips, and the attacker has seven.
Purpose of the game.
Each player, in order to achieve his goal, tries to capture or immobilize as many opponent pieces as possible. The attacker's goal is to capture the fortress by moving two of his pieces there; the defender's goal is to prevent him from doing this.
Starting position.
The defender's pieces are located around the fortress (but not in the neutral zone), and the attacker's pieces are located in the outermost circle.
Rules of the game.
Players decide which of them will attack and which will defend. The attacker goes first, after which the players take turns taking turns. The attacker can only move his pieces forward (that is, towards the center) or sideways (a).
The defender - although he has fewer pieces - has the advantage of being able to move them in any direction except diagonally (b). He cannot enter the fortress, although he is allowed to jump over it when taking enemy pieces.
When moving sideways (that is, to another segment), the chips must remain within one ring. Both players can move their pieces into the neutral zone - although the attacker's number of pieces in the neutral zone cannot exceed the defender's total number of pieces on the board.
For example, if the defender only has two pieces left on the board, the attacker can only keep two pieces in the neutral zone.
Taking chips.
Both players have the right to take the opponent's pieces, although this is not obligatory. The chip is taken by jumping over it to the free section behind it (a).
The captured piece is then removed from the board. As with normal moves, the attacker's movements are limited to taking pieces by moving forward or sideways, while the defender can also take pieces by moving backwards.
When a player takes a piece with a sideways move, they both must be within the same ring.
During one turn, a player can only take one chip. You cannot take chips located in the neutral zone. However, it is permitted to use the neutral zone as a starting or ending point when taking a chip.
Although the defender is not allowed to be in the fortress itself, he can jump over it to take an opponent's piece inside it (b), provided that the section immediately behind it is clear (b).
End of the game.
The attacker can enter the fortress from any segment (including the neutral zone). If the defending piece is located on the innermost circle, the attacker can jump over it into the fortress (thereby taking it).
If the attacker moves one of his pieces into the fortress, it is still vulnerable to being captured by the defending piece. However, if the attacker managed to get two pieces into the fortress, he wins the game.
The defender wins if he either took everything. except one, the attacker's chips, or immobilized the attacker's chips so that he is not able to lead two chips into the fortress.
In the next article
Peter Shotwell, an anthropologist and great Go lover who made a trip to China and Tibet in the 1990s to find out the ancestry of Go, cites an interesting anecdote. A resident of Ghalrong village named Don Drob Lha Gal, a Bon practitioner, said that in the old days the local Bon-po knew Go, but played another game for fun. "extraordinarily complex" game on a Go board, where black and white stones are first lined up on the sides, and then "move and jumpFriendthrough a friend until all of one player's stones are lost or cornered.". Shotwell adds that a certain high lama from Sarnath (northern India) also mentioned a strange game called "Bhugom bu Chos" (in English text: "bKugom bu Chos"), which he played in Tibet as a child, and even shed tears from memories of when Shotwell showed him his Go stones.
MIN MANG (GANDRA)
The game in question goes by several names. At a later time it was referred to as "gundru" or "gandra" (in the English text the name is written gundru, probably of Indian origin). In Europe and America today it is known as “Ming Mang” or “Mi-Mang”, which is a consequence of confusion: in Tibet this is the name of the local variety of Go (Tib. “Ming Mang” - “Many Eyes”). It is possible that the Tibetans usually call this any game with pebbles and chips, where there are no dice. Its origin is unclear, it is only clear that the game is ancient, but younger than Go or the cross-circular game Sho.
Min Mang (let's call it that) is a hybrid game, and contains elements of clamping checkers, staged games like Go, and transformation of chips. To play Min Mang, a Go set is usually used. Most often they play on a small board (7x7, 9x9, 13x13); on large boards the tactics become too complicated. Chips can be placed at the crosshairs of lines, or they can also be placed on cells: both options appear in the descriptions, this does not affect the mechanics of the game. Unlike Go, the pieces move during a move.
At the beginning, players place their pieces in a large "angle" on the sides of the board, filling the first horizontal and one vertical on the left. Black makes the first move. The chip moves horizontally or vertically to any number of fields, similar to a chess rook. Two chips chop one, clamping it on both sides in pincers vertically or horizontally. There is no diagonal capture in Min Manga, but you can capture a whole chain of enemy pieces and even several chains at once if you manage to “sit” on their tail and head (naturally, such a capture chain must be straight and without breaks). A piece can pass and stand between two adjacent enemy pieces, but it is not considered captured.
The rules are extremely simple, but contain an interesting point: taken chips are not removed from the board, but change to the opposite color (in the original Tibetan version, it is customary to replace captured stones with chips of a different color; today, amateurs use reversi chips, with one side black and the other white) . Such a replacement or reversal occurs immediately after a move with a capture, and only after the opponent makes his move. The winner is the one who manages to convert the enemy's pieces into his own, or block them and capture more territory. Chips in the corners of the board cannot be captured, but can be blocked, which also brings a win.
The problem with the rules described above is that Min Mang gives enough opportunities for dead-end formations. Modern amateurs play according to the modernized rules of R. Schmittberger, which make several amendments:
1). It is prohibited to make moves leading to a repetition of a position (that is, moves in which the piece returns to the point from which it just came).
2). A fenced area is considered captured territory if the enemy cannot penetrate it.
3). If both players pass consecutively, the game ends in the same order as Go.
4). In a deadlock situation, when the opponents have built two walls and demarcated the territory on the board so that further captures become impossible, the player who has captured more than half the board area wins.
All this makes the game more strategic, when the threat of capturing a piece turns only into a means of pressure, and the goal becomes the seizure of territory, as in Go.
In some variants of the rules, it is allowed to capture only a single chip, in others, serial capture is allowed, but limited: no more than three chips in a row. In addition, there is information that according to the rules of gandra, capturing a chip in the corner is allowed, but how this happens is unclear.
Min Mang is a very intricate game and on a large board it can become truly puzzling and last for several hours, but in essence it is quite simple and even children can easily master it. It is difficult to calculate your actions several moves ahead; the game is played mainly on attention, with intuition playing a big role. Recently, in addition to the canonical formation on the sides, amateurs have been using several alternative options for the initial formation, each of which slightly changes the opening tactics, but generally does not affect the gameplay. Those who wish can play a game online with a bot and test your tactical skills.
It is unknown where and how Min Mang appeared, and the boundaries of its distribution are also unclear. Tibet is ethnically heterogeneous - in addition to the indigenous Tibetans inhabiting the basin of the middle reaches of the Tsangpo River, the northern slopes of the highlands are inhabited by tribes of Mongolian origin, and the southern slopes are inhabited by tribes of Indian and Chinese origin. It is also very likely that the ancestor of the game could be the ancient Greek petteia, which came to Tibet with the army of Alexander the Great or later penetrated through the Greek colonies in Bactria, and was then transferred to the Go board. Most likely, the game itself originated in the south, in the Buddhist and Bon monasteries of northern India and southern Tibet, but no thorough research has been carried out in this area. Tibet, in general, for a long time was a closed country where Europeans were not allowed, and accordingly Min Mang remained a curiosity. European explorers, starting with Tsybikov, took from Tibet many artifacts relating to geography, geology, natural history, history, medicine, religion and mysticism, but board games, unfortunately, were not part of their area of interest. Bon adept's statement is like stones«
jumped over each other»
, finds neither confirmation nor refutation. If this was allowed in some local version of the game, Shotwell is silent about it; How this happened (if it happened), according to what rules, we, alas, do not know.
Today, amateurs often play Min Mang on 8x8 boards - chess or reversi. By the way, it is possible that the game of reversi itself, invented in the 19th century, goes back to the Tibetan proto-version, but it is possible that not. Unlike reversi, Min Mang has more similarities with clamping checkers, and specifically with the Thai clamping game Mak-Yek and the Japanese Hasami Shogi.
REVERSI (“OTHELLO”)
In the anime “Hikaru and Go” (forgive me for mentioning it again - I couldn’t resist :) there is an episode when teacher Sai asks Hikaru why he doesn’t play Go with his girlfriend Akari, to which Hikaru replies irritably: “Screw her! It's not fun to play with her. And in general, it seems to me that she still confuses Go with Othello.”. "With what?"- Sai asks in surprise, but Hikaru interrupts the conversation: "Oh, never mind".
Sai's surprise is understandable - this restless spirit of the great Go player visited the world of the living for the last time long before the game Othello was born (and it was even called differently then). Meanwhile, if Hikaru had explained the rules of the game to his ghostly friend, perhaps Sai would have become interested in it.
Reversi has a strange fate: human civilization invented this game three, maybe four times. At the same time, the general idea and its mechanics are so simple that it is unclear how this did not happen a couple of millennia earlier. However, apart from Renju, Go and the mysterious Tibetan game Min Mang, which was just mentioned above, Reversi has no other ancestors or analogues. Moreover, in the finds and descriptions there are no traces of other games, the rules of which would require changing the color of the chips from one’s own to someone else’s.
Reversi was first invented in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century by two people independently. It happened like this.
In 1870, John W. Mollett outlined the basic principles of modern reversi in his patented game "Annexation", which, however, was proposed to be played on a cross-shaped field, and in 1876 he launched it into production.
However, in 1880, a certain Lewis Waterman suggested to readersmagazine "The Queen" a game called "Reversi" (eng. "Reversi") - almost in the form in which it exists to this day, that is, on a square 8x8 board, and proclaimed himself its author. In 1886, Mollett re-registered his patent, abandoning the cross-shaped board and calling the game "Annex, a game of reverses", but after a trial in court he was forced to remove the subtitle from the name.
The story gradually took on a tragicomic character. The dispute turned out to be fundamentally insoluble, since the mechanics of the game were invented by Mollett, but the size and shape of the board (as well as the name "reversi") were Waterman's idea. The name, by the way, turned out to be extremely successful in terms of marketing: it is derived from the English expression “to reverse” (“to reverse”, “to turn over”) in the Italian manner (in Russian it can be translated as “reversals”, “turnovers”, “somersaults”) and well illustrates the basic principle of the game. It turned out that one borrowed the general concept from the other, and the other borrowed the design, name and optimal parameters of the game set from the first. Mollett and Waterman almost immediately accused each other of plagiarism and fraud and sued for priority rights for a long time (according to unverified rumors, they almost fought a duel), meanwhile several companies began releasing the game in 1888. It is worth mentioning that Waterman's reversi kits did not have a board (players were asked to use a chess board), while Mollett's game was sold with a cheap 8x8 paper board.
Reversi quickly became a popular game, but in the leapfrog of wars, revolutions and other social cataclysms of the early 20th century, it was just as quickly forgotten (by the way, its fate is indicative, but not unique - in the same way, yotai, salta and several other beautiful gaming systems: people simply no longer care about games).
To play reversi, you need a one-color board of 8x8 cells (you can use a chessboard), as well as 64 flat chips, one side of which is painted white, the other black. The chips can be round, square, spherical, pin-shaped and even completely stationary rotating triangular prisms (this version is called Othello Kiwame in honor of the designer, author of the idea), as well as Othello for the blind with embossed chips - in general, there is huge scope for design ideas here.
In principle, it all comes down to the convenience of turning the chips from one side to the other: this must be done quickly so as not to waste playing time, and as carefully as possible so as not to drop the chip and not destroy the game pattern. On a smooth field, the player catches neighboring chips when turning them over; a textured field “holds” the chips well, but at the same time it is difficult to pick them up and turn them over, and a field made of artificial cloth or velvet paper quickly becomes greasy. By and large, this problem in sports reversion has not yet been solved. Japanese kits traditionally stand out among others for their excellent workmanship and ergonomics (though at the same time, they are also overpriced).
Opponents start the game [virtually] with an empty board; one plays for white and places the chips with the white side up, the other, respectively, for black and places them with the black side up. The chips do not move and are not even removed from the board, they are only placed one by one, close to the opponent’s chip so that one’s own chip forms a “pincer” paired with another one of its own, placed earlier - and captures the clamped chip or chain of chips. Such a closed chain must be straight and continuous, there must be no breaks or enemy pieces in it.
A captured piece or chain of pieces is not removed from the board, but is immediately turned over and changes color, “passing over” to the enemy’s side. The enemy, accordingly, does the same. This type of grip is allowed vertically, horizontally and diagonally. Multiple, complex captures are also common in the game, when one piece closes two or three “branches” of capture at once. This “recruitment” continues continuously throughout the game until the board is full. If further moves are no longer possible, the chips are counted: the one with the most chips on the board wins. You can also win by “turning” all your opponent’s chips into your color and locking the remaining ones.
If the number of chips is equal, a draw is considered.
In reversi there is no checkers “majority rule” and its analogues - from several possible moves the player has the right to choose any one. You cannot pass: a player cannot refuse a move if a move is possible. And only if there is such a situation on the board that the player cannot build “pincers” and capture chips, the move is transferred to the opponent.
But let's return to our Hikaru and teacher Sai.
It’s not for nothing that the young cartoon hero mentions this game. Reversi was reborn in Japan in 1971: its counterpart, Othello, was created by Japanese gamer enthusiast Goro Hasegawa (pictured right) in an attempt to develop a game that combined the simplicity of checkers, the strategic complexity of Go, and the excitement of Renju ( more precisely, ninukki-renju). The authorship of the name “Othello” belongs to the Japanese company “Tsukuda Original Co”, which put the game on sale under this brand. 
It is unclear what inspired the development specialists when they came up with the name (however, it is known that the inventor’s father, Shiro Hasegawa, a teacher of classical literature at the University of Tokyo, took part in the brainstorming). According to one version, it goes back to Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name, specifically to the rivalry between Othello and Iago (the main negative character in the play is called “two-faced”), according to another, to the rivalry between the Moor Othello and his wife Desdemona, based on jealousy. Or maybe the Japanese just liked the sound of a foreign word... The latter is especially curious, considering that the Japanese language does not have an “L” sound. In any case, it is now impossible to establish the truth.
Sales of Othello immediately after its introduction in Japan in 1973 and in the United States in 1975 exceeded $600 million, making Othello the best-selling strategy game in the world. This unusual “swinging” flexible strategic system (an almost living illustration of the principle of balance between yin and yang) fit perfectly into the family of traditional oriental games, and already in 1977, the first world reversi championship was held in Monte Carlo (organized by Jim Becker). Since then, such a championship has been held annually, each time in a different country. Othello received awards for "Best Classic Game of the 20th Century", "Best Game: Parents' Choice", and was also included in the "Hall of Fame" according to gaming magazines and is still produced in several countries around the world.
Until 1971, there was not a single strong reversi player in the world. Moreover: not a single serious work on the theory of reversi is known to have been published before Hasegawa’s book (and even that book is replete with serious errors and incorrect recommendations). This once again proves that the game really remained in complete oblivion for just under a century.
In reversi there is a strong confrontation between Japan and other countries (the strongest players in Japan are considered to be Kazuki Okamoto, Takeshi Murakami and Hideshi Tamenori - the latter in the picture on the right), but there are also strong “reversists” in France, Italy, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland , South Korea, Thailand. The main domains of the game remain Japan (the Meijin title in the Othello game is played there every year) and Europe, although the Americans have won the world championship several times. If anyone is interested, the results of the 2013 Reversi World Championship are here, with animated diagrams and kifu of the final games.
Reversi very easily switched to a computer platform - playing in a graphical editor, which itself flips the chips and gives a score, is much easier and faster than flipping two dozen chips yourself every move. The first pocket electronic toys OCT-REVERSI were produced by Casio back in the distant 80s, when the legendary “Well, wait a minute!” were just starting to be riveted in the USSR. (Apparently, this company unpatriotically preferred the European version of the game, either to avoid paying licensing fees, or because it believed that the name “Othello” in combination with the Casio logo would indeed look strange). As a result, on most home computers today there are sometimes no chess or checkers programs, but reversals are present almost everywhere. Every second user has a program or Internet client installed for playing reversi on a portable electronic gadget and/or mobile phone. This is an amazing fact, because reversi is a purely counting game, and machines, as a rule, play it much better than people. 
Perhaps this popularity is due to the fact that Reversi is an intuitive game, related to the seizure of territory and in many ways similar to Go; There are few openings in it, but in the middle of the game there is a huge scope for creative improvisation. A strategy for winning in reversion can only be developed through experienced training and long-term work on oneself. The most famous manual for reversi players, authored by Brian Rose, has the characteristic title “Othello: a minute to learn... a lifetime to improve.”
While the game set, rules, balance and etiquette are generally identical, Reversi and Othello are slightly different.
These differences are:
* Reversi board is usually white or red-brown. The modern board for Othello is most often green (a reference either to a grass court or to the green cloth common to card tables and billiards), while it contains the “star” points traditional for oriental games; they do not carry any gaming load, they simply delimit the space of the board visually and make orientation easier.
* In reversi, players had a strictly fixed supply of chips - 30 pieces each, and if someone ran out of chips, he could not borrow them from his opponent; in Othello this is not only possible, but also obligatory, that is, by and large, the features in Othello are common.
* In reversi it was allowed to place a chip near your chips, without turning them over; This is not allowed in Othello.
* According to the reversi rules of 1876, the game began with an empty board - the opponents made the first two moves to the central four squares in any order without turning over (that is, two starting positions are possible). Pay attention to the initial arrangement of chips in the electronic toy from Casio (pictured above): it is parallel. In Othello the initial arrangement is fixed: the four central cells are filled with chips in a checkerboard pattern (black on d5 and e4, white on d4 and e5).
* Finally, in Reversi the first move is made by white, in Othello - by black.
In recent decades there has been a continuous struggle between the commercial trademark "Othello" and the old, loose name "reversi". How it will end is unclear. The name “Othello”, under which the game experienced its renaissance, is definitely worthy of mention, but the name “reversi” fits the mechanics of the game much better and does not evoke unnecessary associations and literary analogies. By the way, all international tournaments are held according to Othello’s rules.
The notation in both games is chess, alphanumeric. The game record is similar to the game record in Go: it is a diagram depicting the playing field (Japanese “kifu”), on which moves are marked with circles of two colors with continuous numbering.
Not long ago - 5-6 years ago in Moscow and St. Petersburg it was possible to purchase very good plastic reversion kits made in Germany, but due to lack of demand the game was first stopped being brought to Russia and then released altogether. Today in the CIS you can only find homemade or Chinese-made kits, sometimes of very poor quality.
In addition to the classic reversi, there are the following game options:
* “Reverse n x n” for a board with more squares than 8x8 (playing on a board smaller than 8x8 is not of interest to serious players). In Japan, the version with a 10x10 board is called Grand Othello, and the 6x6 version for children and primary schoolchildren is called Mini Othello;
* Reversi with a “black hole”, where one of the cells is randomly marked as a “black hole”: where it is forbidden to place chips, and which interrupts the take line;
* Anti-reversi (with a kind of “reversi-giveaway”), in which the player who has fewer chips at the end of the game wins.
*There is also an option called "Eight-star Othello" («
Othello 8Stars”, pictured), the board of which is a 10x10 square with three reduced cells in each corner. The rules are basically the same as in Othello and Grand Othello, but the tactics change quite a bit, since the number of corner pieces (which in reversi are basically impossible to capture and reverse) is increased from four to eight (where the name actually comes from).
* There is a known option for a round board (or rather, a board with a mesh marking and a round edging, which has no corners and therefore a circular grip is possible on it). I know nothing about the playability of such markup.
* There is also a reversi option for hexagonal boards, developed by Kruzno, with a rather complex initial arrangement.
* The latest development from Tsukuda Original Co today is the game Othello Revolution, the field of which consists of 16 moving modules (similar to the game “15”), each with 4 cells. Once you remove one or two, you can move the rest. Capture in such a game occurs not only by placing a chip, but also by the subsequent shift of such a module. True, according to experts, this option is more of an interesting curiosity than a full-fledged logic game.
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"MIRACLE FIVE"
Already while writing this post, I found on the Internet photos of people playing a certain game in the presence of Goro Hasegawa himself. on a board with a strange 10x9 marking, with a contrasting transverse stripe and the same edging. After a lot of searching on ebay and boardgamegeek I found out what it is.Hasegawa's latest creation. The game is called “Miracle Five”; it appeared on the market in 2009 and is positioned as “The Game from the Creators of Othello.”
Essentially the game is an advanced version of Gomoku. As in gomoku, the goal of the players is-build a row of five of your chips. However, the number of chips in the game is limited to twelve, and after being placed on the board, a chip can move on the next move-walk on one cell vertically or horizontally, and also jump over another piece, your own or an opponent’s, landing on the cell immediately behind it. Also a trickcan jump over a continuous chain of enemy pieces (along, from one end to the other). However, withA series of jumps is not permitted. Besides this, the chipscan move linearly in the blue zone for any number of cells (including with a turn), such movement can only be blocked by one’s own or someone else’s piece that gets in its way, however, the markings are such that there is almost always another way around. The players' goal remains the same (line up 5 chips in a row).
A similar chip becomes marked (in real life it simply turns over-
marks with the image of the sun or the month are applied on its reverse side) and acquires diagonal moves.A more complicated version of the game offers a different board layout.
Black's first move advantage is still very high, and it seems that if he plays smart, he almost always wins. But perhaps the board markings make some adjustments. If you want, see for yourself: the game is interesting, and withyou can play it online .
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(c) Dmitry Skiryuk
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P.S. Georgiy agricolamz
, over to you! As the biggest reversi connoisseur I know, you probably have something to say. Please clarify what I missed :).
D.S.
It's time to play Reversi online - the best version of the game with rules in Russian is available for free! You can study in the game “Reversi” against the computer, and when you are ready to play with a real person, call a friend and organize an online championship without registration!
The game "Reversi" is an online clone of the board strategy game of the same name for two players. You may know Reversi as the game Othello. These are just two different names for the same game. Its essence is a reverse confrontation between white and black chips on a territory of 64 cells arranged 8x8. Each player starts with 2 discs of his own color, but can increase the number, gradually capturing the enemy's territory.
The modern online game "Reversi" is based on the rules of the board puzzle Reversi, invented by two Englishmen in 1883. Each accused the other of fraud. Meanwhile, the toy became very famous even without an established authorship. One day, an enterprising Japanese slightly adjusted the rules of “Reversi” and patented a new name for the game - “Othello”.
Initially, Reversi did not have a specific starting position, but according to the rules of Othello, the action begins with four checkers placed in the middle of an 8 by 8 grid. Over time, the historical game "Reversi" adopted the innovations of "Othello" and is now known with a double name.
Extended rules of the game "Reversi"
- Black goes first, if you play Reversi for two against the computer, the move is yours.
- The goal of the game is to occupy as many enemy tiles as possible while blocking your tiles from being captured.
- To occupy a tile with your color, you need to trap it, blocking the passage between your two tiles, horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
- The captured area is painted in the winner's color, but can be recaptured if there is enough space.
- The game continues as long as movement is possible.
- The one who captures the most chips wins.
How to play Reversi
Using the mouse, place your pieces near your opponent's pieces to capture the space located between you. Consider the following when planning your strategy for playing Reversi:
- try to end your move in a corner position, this will protect the chips of your color by blocking the opponent’s moves;
- force your opponent to make a bad move by playing on the edges - calculate the path so that your color ends up on the edge.
The simplicity of the online game “Reversi” is deceptive, but if you know the rules and basic tricks, you will definitely find winning moves and be able to win! Are you ready to test your strength? Have a good game!
The game was invented in 1880 in Great Britain. Immediately after its invention, people became interested in the game everywhere, they wrote about it in newspapers and published books, but by the end of the 19th century they began to forget about it. Soon the game was completely forgotten, until in 1971 the game was brought back to life by the Japanese Goro Hosezawa, but under a different name - Othello. Now the official name of the game is Othello, only in Russia it is called Reversi in the old fashioned way.
Now there are international associations dedicated to this game, annual world championships are held, and many computer and tabletop versions of the game have been released.
In terms of popularity, in America the game Othello ranks second after chess, and in Japan - after Go.
Game rules for 2 players
To play you need: A playing field of 8x8 cells, 64 chips painted on both sides in different colors.
The goal of the game is to capture the maximum area of the playing field with your chips, covering and turning over the opponent’s chips.
Chips colored on both sides are divided between players. Everyone plays with their own color throughout the game, that is, they place a chip on the field with its color on top.
- At the beginning of the game, each player places his two pieces in the center of the field, usually diagonally.
- Having determined the order, the players take turns placing their chips on the field, but in such a way that between the new chip placed and one of the chips of the same color already on the board, there is either one or a continuous row of opponent’s chips (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). That is, in other words, the player must cover a row of opponent’s pieces on both sides with his own pieces. After this move, all the opponent's pieces in the closed row are turned over to the other side and go to the player who moved.
- If a player manages to close several rows at once (fork), then the opponent’s chips are turned over accordingly, also in two rows. Idling is not allowed in the game. With each move, you need to surround at least one opponent’s piece, but if there is no such situation on the field, the player misses the move.
- The game ends when all the pieces are on the board. After counting the chips, the winner is declared the player who has the most chips on the field. If the number of chips is the same, a draw is declared.
You can try the game online for free before purchasing the game or before making it yourself.
The game uses a square board measuring 8 × 8 cells (all cells can be the same color) and 64 special pieces, painted on different sides in contrasting colors, for example, white and black. At the beginning of the game, 4 chips are placed in the center of the board: black on d5 and e4, white on d4 and e5. Black makes the first move. Then the players take turns. When making a move, a player must place his chip on one of the squares of the board in such a way that between this placed chip and one of the chips of his color already on the board there is a continuous row of opponent’s chips, horizontal, vertical or diagonal (in other words, so that a continuous row of chips the opponent was “closed” by the player’s pieces on both sides). All opponent’s chips included in the “closed” row on this move are turned over to the other side (change color) and go to the player who moved. If, as a result of one move, more than one row of enemy chips is “closed” at the same time, then all the chips that are on all “closed” rows are turned over. The player has the right to choose any of the moves possible for him. If a player has possible moves, he cannot refuse a move. If a player does not have valid moves, then the move is transferred to the opponent. The player has the right to choose any of the moves possible for him. If a player has possible moves, he cannot refuse a move. If a player has no valid moves, then the move is passed to the opponent. The game ends when all the chips are on the board or when neither player can make a move. At the end of the game, the chips of each color are counted, and the player with the most chips on the board is declared the winner. If the number of chips is equal, a draw is considered.
Strategy Basics
Reversi is a strategic game similar to checkers and chess. Just like in chess, it is customary to divide the game into three parts: opening (beginning), middlegame (middle of the game) and endgame (ending). However, unlike chess, the number of possible openings is much smaller, and all of them are easy to remember. All any serious players know the openings 5-6 moves ahead in order to avoid obviously losing moves at this stage. The middlegame is perhaps the most “free” and at the same time difficult part of the game, when the position can either be strengthened or changed in your favor. Despite this, many seemingly lost games in the middlegame acquire new qualities when entering the final stage of the game - the endgame. The golden rule of endings is to take your time and count. It is customary to count chips that result in the final outcome of the game for a specific tactic. Naturally, the number of outcomes depends on which move to start counting from, and this is why computers play much better than people - they can afford to calculate all possible options (by computer standards, there are few of them) and always choose the one that minimizes the human result and computer points are maximized. There are quite a few different strategies for playing reversi, and the choice is determined by the level of training and inclinations of the player. The simplest game for beginners may be to capture the corner squares of the board, which subsequently cannot be “repainted” in a different color, and sequentially occupy the board from the corners. A more advanced tactic is to limit the enemy’s possible moves: a position is created in which the enemy only has moves that suit the player, and the game takes place in a direction that is convenient for the player. As a rule, most Japanese masters are distinguished by precisely this, honed to perfection, tactics. An even more advanced tactic is the “tempo” tactic, which can be characterized by the rule “take away the enemy’s most profitable moves and make them your own.” This strategy, however, requires an extremely strong “sense of position.” Yet, despite the existence of developed strategic principles, the most important part of success is experience. Only experience gives stability, with which comes a feeling of understanding the game and its subtleties. You can learn more about the strategy and tactics of the game in Brian Rose’s book “Othello: A Minute to Learn... A Lifetime to Improve.”Reversi or Othello?
While the game set, rules, balance and etiquette are generally identical, Reversi and Othello are slightly different. These differences are:- Reversi board is usually white or red-brown. The modern board for Othello is most often green (a reference either to a grass court or to the green cloth common to card tables and billiards), while it contains the “star” points traditional for oriental games; they do not carry any gaming load, they simply delimit the space of the board visually and make orientation easier.
- In reversi, players had a strictly fixed supply of chips - 30 pieces each, and if someone ran out of chips, he could not borrow them from his opponent; in Othello this is not only possible, but also obligatory, that is, by and large, the features in Othello are common.
- In reversi, you were allowed to place a chip near your chips, without turning them over; This is not allowed in Othello.
- According to the reversi rules of 1876, the game began with an empty board - the opponents made the first two moves to the central four squares in any order without turning over (that is, two starting positions are possible). In Othello, the initial arrangement is fixed: the four central cells are filled with pieces in a checkerboard pattern (black on d5 and e4, white on d4 and e5).
- Finally, in Reversi the first move is made by white, in Othello - by black.
In recent decades there has been a continuous struggle between the commercial trademark "Othello" and the old, loose name "reversi". How it will end is unclear. The name “Othello”, under which the game experienced its renaissance, is definitely worthy of mention, but the name “reversi” fits the mechanics of the game much better and does not evoke unnecessary associations and literary analogies. By the way, all international tournaments are held according to Othello’s rules. The notation in both games is chess, alphanumeric. The game record is similar to the game record in Go: it is a diagram depicting the playing field (Japanese “kifu”), on which moves are marked with circles of two colors with continuous numbering.
