What is the difference between Reversi and Othello?

People often ask whether Reversi and Othello are the same game. The short answer is that they are the same game with two different openings and two different histories. Here is the full picture.

Quick answer: Reversi and Othello use the same rules - place a disc to flank and flip your opponent's pieces. The differences are historical: Reversi is the older Victorian game that traditionally lets players choose where the first four discs go, while Othello is the standardised, trademarked 1973 version that fixes those four discs in a diagonal cross.

Same rules, different opening

Both games are played on an 8x8 board with the identical flank-and-flip capture. The one mechanical difference is the start. Classic Reversi uses a free opening: the first four discs are placed by the players onto the central squares as they choose, so no two games begin alike. Othello fixes those four discs in a set diagonal cross, so every game starts from the same balanced position - which is what makes deep opening theory possible.

Different histories

Reversi dates to 1880s England, where rival inventors published competing rule sets. Othello was created by Goro Hasegawa in Japan and released commercially in 1973; he standardised the rules, fixed the opening and trademarked the name. Today "Othello" refers to that official tournament version, complete with a World Championship, while "Reversi" usually means the free, un-trademarked classic. You can play both versions here.

Try Othello's fixed opening

Related questions

What is Reversi?

Reversi is a two-player abstract strategy game played on an 8x8 board with double-sided discs, one colour per player. On your turn you place a disc so it traps a straight line of your opponent's discs between two of yours, flipping them all to your colour. When the board fills up, whoever has more discs wins.

What is Othello and how is it played?

Othello is the modern, standardised form of Reversi, created by Goro Hasegawa in 1973. It uses the same flank-and-flip capture on an 8x8 board, but fixes the four opening discs in a diagonal cross so every game starts identically. Dark moves first, and whoever owns more discs when the board fills wins.

How do you win at Reversi?

Winning Reversi comes down to three ideas: grab the corners safely because corner discs can never be flipped; play for mobility by keeping many good moves for yourself and few for your opponent; and control parity so you make the last move in each region. Chasing raw disc count early is usually a mistake.