Play Reversi (Othello) free against the computer. Trap and flip discs, grab the corners, hold the most discs. Three difficulty levels, no install.
Tap an empty highlighted square to place a disc. It must trap a line of the computer's discs between yours — every trapped disc flips to your colour.
Reversi is a strategy board game first played in 1880s England, where two rival inventors each claimed to have devised it. Almost a century later it was rediscovered and refined in Japan, where a version of it was sold under the name Othello and became a worldwide hit. The game it describes is the same: a battle for an eight-by-eight board fought entirely with two-faced discs, one side dark and one side light.
You play the dark discs and move first; the computer takes the light ones. On your turn you place a disc so that it traps a straight line of the opponent's discs — horizontal, vertical or diagonal — between the disc you just played and another of your own. Every trapped disc flips to your colour. You must make a move that flips at least one disc; if you cannot, your turn is skipped. When neither side can move, whoever holds more discs wins.
What makes Reversi deceptively deep is that the lead means nothing until the very end. A board can swing from a crushing majority to a loss in a handful of moves, because every disc can be flipped — except the four in the corners, which can never be taken back. Choose from three difficulty levels and learn why grabbing discs early is so often a trap.
You earn hint coins each time you win — more for higher difficulty, a bigger winning margin, and longer win streaks. Tap the lamp button on your turn to spend one coin and have the engine glow the strongest move it can find. Losing resets your streak, and your coins are saved between sessions.
Tap an empty square to place one of your dark discs. The move must trap a line of the computer's discs between your new disc and another of yours; every trapped disc flips to dark. Hold the most discs when the board is full to win.
When you place a disc, any straight line of opponent discs — across, down or diagonally — that is bracketed between your new disc and another of your discs is flipped to your colour. One move can flip in several directions at once.
If you cannot make a move that flips at least one disc, your turn is skipped and the other player goes again. If neither side can move, the game ends.
A disc in one of the four corners can never be flipped, because there is no square beyond it to bracket it. Corners are permanent and they stabilise the discs next to them, so they are the most valuable squares on the board.
The game ends when neither player can move, usually when the board is full. Whoever has more discs of their colour on the board wins. Equal counts are a draw.
Yes. Reversi is the original name from the 1880s; Othello is the name a popular commercial version was sold under from the 1970s. The rules played here are the standard ones shared by both.