What is Anti-Reversi (Misere Reversi)?
Anti-Reversi takes everything you know about Reversi and turns it upside down. Here is how the lose-to-win variant works and why it scrambles experienced players' brains.
The reversed goal
Every rule is the same: you place a disc that flanks and flips a line of enemy discs, and you cannot pass by choice. The only change is that at the end, the fewest discs wins. That flips your instincts - suddenly big flips are bad, and even corners can be poison, because a corner disc can never be flipped away and permanently pads your count. Play it on the Anti-Reversi board.
Why it is such a good puzzle
Anti-Reversi is a brilliant test of whether you truly understand ordinary Reversi or have merely memorised its rules of thumb. The winning idea is to force your opponent to do the flipping - to reach positions where their only legal moves pile discs onto their own colour. It is the misere cousin of the classic, and a favourite challenge among strong players.
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.
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.
What is Rolit, the four-player Reversi?
Rolit is a modern four-player reworking of Reversi, using brightly coloured balls instead of discs. Up to four players share one 8x8 board with the same flank-and-flip capture, and a single move can flip several colours at once. When the board fills, the player with the most balls of their own colour wins.