Reversi
Trap your opponent’s discs to flip them. Hold the board when it fills.
About Reversi
Reversi is played on an eight-by-eight board with two-sided discs. You play Black and move first. Placing a disc so that it brackets a line of your opponent’s discs between the new disc and one of yours flips that whole line to your colour. Every move must flip at least one disc, and if you have no legal move your turn is skipped. When neither side can move, whoever holds more discs wins.
The game punishes greed harder than almost any other classic board game. Holding the most discs in the middle of the game is close to meaningless, because a single move late can flip an entire diagonal. What matters is controlling which squares your opponent is allowed to use.
Four bot strengths are available, and after the game the review screen shows every move you played, the move that was better, and how much the difference cost.
- Players
- 2 players (you + 1 bot)
- Type
- Board game
- Price
- Free
- Account
- Not required
Reversi rules
- 1.You play Black — tap any highlighted cell to place a disc.
- 2.Any opponent discs trapped between your new disc and an existing one flip to your color.
- 3.You must always flip at least one disc; invalid moves are blocked automatically.
- 4.If you have no valid move, your turn is skipped.
- 5.The player with more discs when the board fills (or no moves remain) wins.
How to win at Reversi
- Take corners, refuse the squares next to them
- A disc on a corner can never be flipped, which makes corners the only permanently safe squares on the board. The squares diagonally adjacent to a corner hand that corner to your opponent, so avoid them until the corner is already settled.
- Play for fewer options, not more discs
- Mobility wins Reversi. A position where your opponent has two legal moves and you have twelve is winning even if you are behind on count, because they will be forced to give you a corner.
- Stay small early
- Keeping your discs clustered in the centre for the first fifteen moves limits how much your opponent can flip and keeps your options open. Wide, sprawling early positions get dismantled.
- Count edges, not the middle
- Edge discs anchored to a corner are stable and worth real points. Central discs are temporary and will change colour several more times before the game ends.
Reversi questions
- Is Reversi the same game as Othello?
- The rules played here are the standard modern ruleset that Othello also uses. Othello is a trademarked commercial edition; this implementation uses the public-domain name Reversi.
- What happens if I have no legal move?
- Your turn is skipped and your opponent moves again. If neither player has a legal move, the game ends and the higher disc count wins.
- Can I review my mistakes after the game?
- Yes. The post-game review grades every move you made, names the better move where one existed, and explains the difference.
- How strong is the bot?
- There are four strength settings. The higher ones evaluate mobility and corner safety rather than just disc count.
Today's Reversi challenge
The board above is today's daily: one shared seed, so every player gets the same Reversi and scores compare fairly. Finish it and your result lands on the daily leaderboard alongside the weekly, monthly and all-time boards.