Setting Up the Board

An Othello board consists of eight rows of eight spaces. There are 64 playing pieces, each with a black side and a white side; each player takes 32 of these to begin. Before play begins, each player places two pieces in the four squares at the center of the board. Black takes the top right and bottom left squares, while white takes the top left and bottom right.

Placing Pieces

Starting with black, each player takes turns to place a single piece on the board. When a player places a piece, any pieces of the opposite color in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line between it and a piece of the same color are captured and must change color. For instance, if the black player places her first piece to the left of the white piece in the top left corner of the starting setup, that piece is trapped between the new piece and the black piece on the top right. It is captured, and the black player should turn it over to show its black side. A move is only legal if it captures at least one of the opposing player's pieces.

Winning the Game

If a player can't make a legal move when his turn comes around, he must pass. The game ends when neither player has any legal moves left, forcing both to pass. This usually happens when most of the board has been filled with pieces, restricting the number of spaces in which pieces can be placed. Whichever player has the most pieces on the board when play ends is the winner.

Othello Variants

Othello is itself a variant of a game called Reversi. The two games are very similar, except that Reversi starts with an empty board; the black player chooses a square to start in, and both players alternate placing pieces until the central four squares are filled. Othello variants include Miser, in which the goal is to have the fewest pieces on the board when the game ends, rather than the most.