Guest Author - Megan Romer

Reversi has been around since the Victorian era, when it was a popular parlor game. More recently, it is known by its proprietary name, Othello and it remains popular throughout the world.

The game is played on an eight-by-eight gridded board. Sixty-four chips are distributed equally between the two players. Each chip is two-colored, with one color on each side. Generally, these colors are black and white. Each player selects one of the two colors before the game, and that color will represent them on the board.

To set up the board, place four chips in the center four squares. Turn the top left and the bottom right-hand chips so they are showing white. Place the top right and the bottom left-hand chips so they are showing black.

The players take turns setting down one chip at a time. When they set a chip down, they set it down in order to capture the other player's chips. In order to do that, they must set their chip down on a blank square adjacent to at least one chip of the other color and a chip of their own color. Any or all of the opposite color chips between the chip the player just set down and the next chip of their color in the same line are flipped and thus captured. It is often possible to set down chips that pertain to more than one line and therefore you can capture chips in several directions. Please note that lines can head horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Also, in order to set a chip down, the player MUST be able to capture at least one chip.

The strategy for reversi is relatively complicated, but there are a few tips that you should remember. The four outside corners are the most valuable squares in the game as they are uncapturable and completely invulnerable. Clever players will not try to capture as many chips as they can early on in the game, as they have the most time to be flipped. Rather, they will worry most about strategic planning and defense at that point in the game. Aggressive play happens more towards the end of the game.

Reversi is a relatively easy game to make a basic homemade version of, if you don't have a set. Simply draw an 8x8 grid on a large piece of paper, and use pennies as your chips. Heads and tails take the place of black and white. Good luck and have fun!