Reversi Help

Reversi is a two-player strategy game played on an 8x8 board using discs that are colored white on one side and black on the other. One player plays the discs black side up while his opponent plays the discs white side up.

Object of the Game

The object of the game is to place your discs on the board so as to outflank your opponent's discs, flipping them over to your color. The player who has the most discs on the board at the end of the game wins.

Rules

• Every game starts with four discs placed in the center of the board, as shown in image to the right.
• The creator of the game chooses which color to play - black or white. Black always goes first.
• Players take turns making moves. A move consists of a player placing a disc of his color on the board. The disc must be placed so as to outflank one or more opponent discs, which are then flipped over to the current player's color. Outflanking your opponent means to place your disc such that it traps one or more of your opponent's discs between another disc of your color along a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line. The valid moves for black are shown by the empty gray circles.
  In this version you are always shown which squares are valid moves.
• When making a move, you may outflank your opponent's discs in more than one direction. All outflanked discs are flipped.
• If a player cannot make a legal move, he forfeits his turn and the other player moves again (this is also known as passing a turn). Note that a player may not forfeit his turn voluntarily. If a player can make a legal move on his turn, he must do so.
• The game ends when neither player can make a legal move. This includes when there are no more empty squares on the board or if one player has flipped over all of his opponent's discs (a situation commonly known as a wipeout).
• The player with the most discs of his color on the board at the end of the game wins. The game is a draw if both players have the same number of discs.

Basic Strategy

A disc played in a corner cannot be outflanked so it is very strategic to try gain a corner. Similarly, do not place discs next to a corner as that opens up the corner to the opponent.

Do not focus on capturing the most discs early on in the game - the chances are many of them will be flipped later.

There are a number of strategies available on the internet to help with your play.