How to Play Reversi: Rules and Strategy Tips
Reversi is a two-player strategy game on an 8×8 board. One player is dark and moves first, the other is light. The game starts with four discs in the middle, two of each color placed diagonally.
The rules
- On your turn, place one disc so that it traps one or more of your opponent's discs in a straight line (across, down or diagonal) between the new disc and another of your discs.
- Every trapped disc flips to your color. One move can flip lines in several directions at once.
- You must flip at least one disc. On Royal Duels, small dots show every legal square.
- If you have no legal move, your turn is skipped. If neither player can move, the game ends.
- The player with the most discs at the end wins.
Strategy tips
- Corners are gold. A disc in a corner can never be flipped back. Fight for them.
- Avoid the squares next to the corners, especially the diagonal ones. Playing there often hands the corner to your opponent.
- Fewer discs early is fine. Grabbing lots of discs in the opening usually gives your opponent more moves. What matters is having more choices than they do.
- Edges are strong once you can hold them safely, because they are hard to flip.
- Count at the end. In the last ten moves, switch from position to counting discs.
A little history
Reversi was invented in England in the 1880s. A modern version with a fixed starting position became very popular in Japan in the 1970s, and today there are world championships for it.
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