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Othello

Othello is an easy game to learn, but long practice and experience are required to master it.

The following is a brief summary of the rules:

At the beginning of the game, four stones are already placed at the centre of an 8x8 standard board. The two stones of one player are placed diagonally and, by convention, the player to make the first move is of white colour, whereas the other is of black colour. The stones are all two-sided and flipping them changes their colour to the opponent's colour. A legal move is such that it reverses one or more stones of the opponent's colour. To reverse a stone, one colour places one of his stones in such a way so that it surrounds a sequence of one or more of the opponent's stones. Such a sequence of opponent's stones must be ending in a board slot that is occupied by a reversing player's stone. All straight lines are applicable in such a reversal: horizontal, vertical or diagonal. If no reversal is possible, the turn is passed to the opponent. The game is finished when neither player has any legal moves left. Usually, by this point the board is completely full. Whoever has the most stones placed on the board at that point wins the game.

There are a few extra points that are worth mentioning:

• Only one type of element can be placed on the board. A board slot can be either empty or occupied by a stone of one player.
• Almost any stone on the board can be recaptured by the opponent i.e. the game score is highly volatile.
• Low number of possible moves is a great disadvantage in the game.