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Othello

Othello

Min number of participants 2
Age 7+ yrs.
Safety support by adult Not required
Min duration 20 min.
Cost Low
Environment Indoor / Outdoor

Place black and white discs on an eight-by-eight board and flip your opponent's pieces by trapping them between yours — the player with the most discs when the board fills wins.

The Essentials

Rules

  • Play only on empty squares that outflank at least one line of the opponent's discs (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), since a move that captures nothing is illegal, no matter how strategically appealing the square looks.
  • Flip every opponent disc trapped between your newly placed disc and another one of your discs along that line, since partial flipping (stopping partway through a captured line) is not allowed.
  • Pass your turn only when you have no legal moves available, since Othello has no voluntary passing; if a legal move exists, you must take it.
  • The game ends when neither player has a legal move, typically when the board is full, and the player with the most discs of their color wins.

Tips

  • Prioritize corner squares whenever possible, since discs placed in corners can never be flipped, making them the most stable and valuable positions on the board.
  • Avoid placing discs in the squares directly adjacent to corners (the "X-squares" and "C-squares") early in the game, since these often give your opponent easy access to the corner itself.
  • Focus on mobility rather than disc count in the early and mid-game, since having more legal move options than your opponent lets you control the game's pace, even if you temporarily hold fewer discs.
  • Think several moves ahead about how a placement affects which squares become available next, since a seemingly strong move can hand your opponent an opening to a corner one or two turns later.
  • Save flipping large numbers of discs for the endgame when possible, since flipping many discs early often creates edge and corner vulnerabilities your opponent can exploit for the rest of the game.
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