Reversi Rules — A Complete Guide for Beginners

What Is Reversi?

Reversi is a two-player strategy board game played on an 8×8 grid with 64 double-sided discs — black on one side, white on the other. Players take turns placing discs on the board, flipping their opponent’s pieces by outflanking them in straight lines. When neither player can move, the player with more discs of their color wins.

The modern version of the game is marketed as Othello, which uses a fixed starting position. Classic reversi starts with an empty center. Nearly all competitive and online play today — including on this site — uses the Othello starting position. The rules below follow that standard.

Reversi is a pure strategy game with zero luck or randomness. Every piece of information is visible to both players at all times, making it similar in that respect to chess and checkers — though there are important differences between reversi and checkers in how strategy works. Despite simple rules, the game has enormous strategic depth — its complexity is estimated at 10²⁸ possible positions.

What You Need

• Board: An 8×8 grid (64 squares). Columns are labeled a–h from left to right; rows are labeled 1–8 from top to bottom.
• Discs: 64 identical pieces, each with a black side and a white side. One player plays Black, the other plays White.
• No dice, no cards, no hidden information. Everything is on the board.

Board Setup (Starting Position)

The game begins with four discs already placed in the center of the board in a diagonal pattern:

• d4 and e5 — White discs (light side up)
• d5 and e4 — Black discs (dark side up)

This creates a 2×2 block in the center where same-colored discs are placed diagonally. This is the standard Othello starting position used in virtually all modern play and tournaments worldwide.

In classic reversi rules, the center four squares start empty and players freely place their first two discs. This variant is rarely played today.

Black always moves first.

How to Make a Move

On your turn you must place one disc of your color on any empty square that outflanks at least one of your opponent’s discs.

What Is Outflanking?

Outflanking means your newly placed disc and an existing disc of your color form a straight line — horizontal, vertical, or diagonal — with one or more of your opponent’s discs trapped between them. There must be no empty squares in the line between your existing disc and your new one.

The Flipping Rule

When you outflank discs, all outflanked opponent discs in every direction are immediately flipped to your color. A single move can trigger flips in multiple directions simultaneously — horizontal, vertical, and diagonal flips can all happen from one placement.

Key rules about flipping:

1. You must flip — flipping is not optional. If your move outflanks discs, they are all flipped.
2. All directions count — check all eight directions (up, down, left, right, and four diagonals) from your placed disc.
3. Chain flipping only — only discs directly between your new disc and your anchoring disc are flipped. Flipped discs do not cause additional chain reactions.
4. You must outflank — every move must flip at least one opponent disc. If no placement creates an outflank, you cannot move (see Passing below).

Example

Imagine Black places a disc at c5. If there is a White disc at d5 and another Black disc at e5, the White disc at d5 is outflanked and flips to Black. If that same move also outflanks White discs on the diagonal toward an existing Black disc at f8, those diagonal discs also flip — all from one placement.

Passing (Skipping Your Turn)

If you have no legal move — meaning no empty square lets you outflank at least one opponent disc — your turn is automatically skipped. Your opponent then takes another consecutive turn.

There is no voluntary passing. If you have a legal move available, you must play. Passing only happens when you literally cannot move.

In practice, passing happens most often in the late game when the board is nearly full and one player’s remaining squares don’t create any outflanks.

How the Game Ends

The game ends when one of these conditions is met:

1. The board is full — all 64 squares are occupied.
2. Neither player can move — even though empty squares remain, no legal outflank exists for either player.

When the game ends, count the discs. The player with more discs of their color wins. If both players have exactly 32 discs, the game is a draw.

In tournament play, the score is recorded as the disc count — for example, “Black wins 38–26.” Empty squares remaining when neither player can move are typically awarded to the winning player’s total.

The Complete Turn Sequence

Here is every turn summarized step by step:

1. Check for legal moves. Look at every empty square and see if placing your disc there would outflank at least one opponent disc in any direction.
2. If you have a move, place a disc. Choose one legal square and place your disc there, color side up.
3. Flip all outflanked discs. In every direction from your new disc, flip all opponent discs that are trapped between your new disc and another disc of your color.
4. If you have no move, pass. Your turn is skipped and your opponent plays next.
5. Check for game end. If both players cannot move consecutively, the game is over.
6. Count discs. Most discs wins.

Scoring

Reversi scoring is straightforward: count the discs at the end.

The maximum possible score is 64–0, called a “wipeout” or “perfect game” — one player owns every disc on the board. This is essentially impossible between competent players.

In tournament play, the margin of victory matters for tiebreakers. A 40–24 win is “better” than a 33–31 win in standings calculations. The Brightwell Quotient is the standard tiebreaker used at the World Othello Championship.

Important Rules Clarifications

You Cannot Skip Voluntarily

If you have even a single legal move, you must play it — even if that move is terrible and gives your opponent a corner. There is no option to pass when a legal move exists.

Flipped Discs Don’t Chain-React

Only the discs directly outflanked by your new placement are flipped. Those newly flipped discs do not cause additional flips of adjacent pieces. Each move has exactly one round of flipping.

Discs Are Never Removed

Once placed, a disc stays on the board for the rest of the game. It may flip between colors many times, but it is never taken off. The board only gains discs — it never loses them.

All Outflanks Are Mandatory

If your placement outflanks discs in three different directions, all three lines of discs flip. You cannot choose to flip only one direction — every outflank is automatically executed.

The Board Is Always Public

Both players can see every disc on the board at all times. There is no hidden information in reversi. This makes it a game of pure strategy and calculation, not memory or bluffing.

Quick-Reference Rules Summary

What to Learn Next

Now that you understand the rules, the natural next step is learning why some moves are better than others. Reversi has a famous strategic paradox: having fewer discs in the early game is often an advantage. Understanding mobility, corners, and stable discs will transform your play from random to intentional.

If you’re curious about the terminology you’ll encounter — X-squares, frontier discs, parity — the glossary defines every term used in competitive reversi.

And if you’ve been wondering whether “reversi” and “Othello” are actually different games, the Reversi vs Othello article settles the question definitively. You can also explore reversi variants like 6×6, 10×10, and Anti-Reversi for a fresh challenge.