Reverse the rules of the game for two. Reversi game rules. What is the fundamental difference between "Reversi" and other similar games
"Reversi" is a desktop intellectual game, similar in essence to checkers, chess and go. The game develops mindfulness, memory and systemic thinking well, does not require long training and develops very dynamically.How to play Reversi?
A board is used, equal in size to a chess board (8 by 8 cells) and with the same alphanumeric markings. Each player in his turn places a piece on the board in accordance with the rules: the task is to surround as many opponent's pieces as possible. In case of a successful encirclement, the pieces are turned over and change their color. It's the color change game elements and gave the name to the game. At the beginning of the game, the center of the board is already occupied by four chips (two of each player). The first move, unlike the others similar games, do black. It is impossible to skip moves. Randomness in the game is 100% excluded.What is the history of the game?
"Reversi" were invented back in the 1880s in the UK. The game gained real world fame in the late seventies of the twentieth century: it was then that the “epidemic” of Reversi (more precisely, as it was then called Othello) swept Japan - and then the rest of the world. At the moment, the game hosts both regional competitions and world championships.What is the fundamental difference between Reversi and other similar games?
Very often, "Reversi" is confused with "battling checkers" - Go. Despite some similarities gameplay, Go requires much more time to play and is distinguished by a significantly greater wealth of strategies. Strategies in Reversi, like in chess, involve capturing key positions in the opening, developing tactics and gaining a key advantage in the middlegame, and developing an advantage in the endgame. Due to the relatively small number of options for moves, most seriously interested players know everything by heart possible options the first 5-6 moves, which opens up scope for creative play only in the middlegame.Which game is more difficult: chess or Reversi?
Unlike chess, modern computers can easily calculate all possible options for the development of games in Reversi in a matter of seconds: it is believed that this leaves no room for creative decisions and does not allow showing intuition. Even as a champion, you can't beat the computer. On the other hand, "Reversi" remains enough difficult game for the human mind: a lot depends on the ability to calculate positions and predict the actions of an opponent. There is an ideal mathematical strategy for the second player in the game that does not allow him to lose: nevertheless, it is almost impossible for a person without mathematical talent to implement it.Why is Reversi so popular?
The rules of "Reversi" are very simple, there are enough options for strategies in the middle game to choose any in nature: from aggressively attacking to cautious, forcing the opponent to make only the moves you need. The game "Reversi" is great for having fun on the road, and is also ideal for children whose intellectual abilities you want to develop. If your child's future profession is somehow connected with the exact sciences, be sure to buy him "Reversi".What's in the box?
The game of reversi (from English to reverse - to reverse) is popular in many countries. In the US, it came in second after chess, and in Japan after go. A variety of tournaments and matches are held, including world championships. The game attracts with the simplicity of the rules - they are simpler than chess and checkers - and amazing dynamism. The situation on the board changes instantly, and all the player's conquests in one move can go to the enemy.
Reversi have been known since time immemorial, and in the early 70s of the 20th century, they were rediscovered by the Japanese Khasedzhava. The insidious traps and unforeseen situations that distinguish the game made him associate with Shakespeare's Othello. and as a result, the reversi received another name - “Othello”.
The attributes of the game are an 8x8 board and 64 chips (32 for each player), painted white on one side and black on the other. You can also take the usual chessboard, the coloring of its fields does not matter. Chips can be made by gluing ordinary white and black checkers to each other or painting 64 identical buttons in two colors.
Let us describe the rules of the game in reversi. The white player puts his chips with the white side up, and the black player puts his chips with the black side. First of all, the partners place two of their pieces in the center of the board, as shown in Figure 1 (in reversi, unlike chess, the horizontal lines of the board are numbered from top to bottom). 
The first move is made by black (as in go and renju, but unlike chess and checkers). Opponents take turns placing one of their chips on the free fields of the board, next to one of the opponent’s chips and so that, together with some of their chips, border (surround) one or more opponent’s chips horizontally, vertically or diagonally (or along several lines straightaway). In other words, a piece is placed in line with another piece of the same color already on the board, and between them there must be a row of opponent's pieces, and there are no empty fields. The pieces surrounded on both sides are captured, but are not removed from the board, but are turned over by the other side, changing their color. If the environment occurs simultaneously along several lines, then all chains of captured chips are turned over. So, any chip, hitting the board, remains on it until the end of the game, although it can turn over any number of times.
To illustrate, consider the symmetrical position in Diagram 2. Now it's Black's move, and placing a chip on the a8 corner square, he immediately surrounds 18 white chips in three possible directions. The pieces of the a-file, from a2 to a7, are surrounded by the pieces a1 and a8, the pieces of the last row, from u8 to g8, by the pieces a8 and h8, and finally the pieces of the long diagonal, from b7 to g2, by the pieces a8 and h1. This example is a record more pieces that can be captured and flipped in one move is 18.
If at some point one of the players cannot make a move (is not able to surround any enemy pieces), then he misses it.
If one of the players has used up all of his pawns, he may take a pawn from the opponent's supply. However, in the set of games n white and black have two additional chips, and this, as a rule, is enough to get by with their own chips.
The moves of both sides are counted in reversi not in pairs, as in chess, but separately (in rare cases, odd numbers correspond to black moves, even numbers to white moves). Before the start of the game, four fields of the board are already occupied, and therefore it lasts no more than 60 moves. The game ends when none of the partners is able to make the next move, in particular, if all 64 fields of the board are already filled with chips. The winner is the one whose chips in this moment there is more on the board, and in case of equality - a draw (of course, the "visible" side of the chips on the board is taken into account).
Returning to Diagram 2, we note that black's a8 move was the last in the game - the whole board is filled with chips. Turning over the record number
Lo chips - 18, Black miraculously escaped - the game ended in a draw -32:32!
Consider now, for example, ten moves of the game in reversi (five on each side).
- c5. Black has surrounded the white chip d5 with his pieces c5 and e5, and it turns over with the black side up (for simplicity, we will say it changes color).
- c6. Now flips over and becomes the white d5 chip.
- d6. The d6 chip turns black again.
- e6. The pieces d6 and e5 are surrounded, both turn over and become white.
- f6. The e5 chip changes color from white to black.
- c4. The pieces c5, d4 and d5 are white.
- b6. A row of chips - c6, d6, e6 - turns over, and they all become black.
- e7. Chips d6. e5 and e6 are white.
- f8. The pieces d5 and e4 are black.
- e3. The e4 chip is white.
There is a position shown in Diagram 3. White, who has more chips, has the initiative. But it's too early to rejoice: the situations in reversi change like in a kaleidoscope, the chameleon chips are constantly "repainted", and it is important what they will be at the end of the game.
In most games, such as chess and checkers, material superiority usually determines the overall advantage, and in reversi, a player who has a significantly larger number of chips of his color can lose all conquests in one move (see, for example, Fig. 2).
Obviously, if at some point one of the players has "eaten" all the chips, the game immediately ends with his defeat. The shortest duel with such an ending ("childish checkmate" for reversi) consists of nine moves:
and only black chips remained on the board. The game ended with their victory with a score of 13:0.
Consider some elementary principles of the game. Since the opponent's pieces located in the center of the board are easier to capture than on the edge, one should always strive to occupy the outer squares of the board and prevent the enemy from doing so. Particularly advantageous is the capture of corner fields. Chips that land on them can never be turned over (there is simply nothing to capture them with) and retain their original color until the end of the game. Anyone who breaks into one of the corners of the board gets a serious advantage, and if this happens at the beginning of the game, then a decisive one. Therefore, by the way, it is very dangerous to put your chips near the corner squares, especially on b2, b7, g2, g7, the opponent can make a simple combination and take the corner. Here is a vivid example illustrating the power of corner counters (Fig. 4). 
As if it's time for White to give up - he has only one chip against 53 opponent's chips! Nevertheless, they easily take over, and even with a "dry" score! Here is a spectacular ending to this game.
- a2. With his move, Black would still be forced to miss it. Now the entire “a” vertical has become white (except for the a1 field so far). Black still has no moves, just as he won't until the end of the game.
- h8. The last horizontal line is painted white.
So, the whole board is filled with white chips, 64:0!
In the opening, experienced players fight in the center of the board - in the square c3 - c6 - f6 - f3, trying not to let the opponent's pieces go to the edge of the board for as long as possible. Then the white and black pieces one by one occupy the edge of the board, and care must be taken not to let the enemy pieces into the corner. By the end of the game, there are fewer options, and skillful players calculate them almost to the end. Now the concession of corners is no longer so dangerous.
It is worth saying that the game of reversi attracts a lot of attention from fans computer games, many programs have been created that worthily compete with humans. In 1989, at the first computer Olympics in London, it was the reversi tournament that brought together the largest number of programs from different countries - 15.
Now, for illustration, we present one interesting game in reversi between a human (black) and a computer (white). For convenience, the numbers of moves are placed directly on the fields of the board.
In figure 5, a, the first 16 moves are indicated, and the color of the chips shows only who exactly - white or black - made a move with a given number. As a result, a position arises, which you see in Figure 5, b (to see this, of course, you need to play the game on the board).
First, the players occupied the entire center of the board (12 moves, 4x4 square), and then went to its edge (Black on the 15th move and White on the 16th). On this, the debut of the game can be considered finished. The middle game of the game, moves 17-42, can be traced in Figure 6. Here the color of numbered chips also corresponds to the sequence of moves, and the color of chips that do not have numbers is the same as in Figure 5, b. 
More and more chips appear on the borders of the board, but the opponents still do not let each other go to its corners. The position after 42 moves is shown in Figure 7, a (all the chips already placed on the board are numbered).
The initiative now belongs to the computer (25:21), but in the endgame the human managed to create a decisive attack (moves 43-60). To do this, he resorted to a trick - he gave up the lower left corner (the car took it with move 46), but with moves 47, 49 he penetrated into the adjacent right corner, gaining considerable space in the lower part of the board. The chances equalized, but on move 50 the computer made a mistake, and Black captured one more corner, the upper right. After their 53rd move, White is unable to put on the board new feature and are forced to skip a move, followed by the second one (that's why the chips with numbers 53, 54 and 55 in Figure 7 are painted black). A few moves later, the game ended in Black's victory with a minimal margin of 33:31 (Fig. 7, b).
Let's dwell on some strategic principles of the game. In the middle game, the player should create such situations on the board that there are squares that he can go to, but his opponent cannot. The four main cases where White can move on the edge of the board - A, B, C, D are shown in Diagram 8.
If there is a second supporting chip in the center of the board (the central squares are shaded in the figure), White can always place a chip on one of these squares; for Black they are inaccessible for any position in the center. Obviously, the presence of such "reserve" squares for one of the parties, in this case white, is very important; in chess language, this allows you to win the tempo.
It should not be assumed that the most important thing in reversi is a distant calculation of options. Often situations arise in which the struggle is local in nature, only a certain part of the board is affected. Consider Figure 9. 
White played the opening badly, and Black, by placing a chip on square A, gets a reserve square. They do not occupy square B for as long as possible, and if at some point White occupies it, then Black will have a new square D, which he can go to, but the opponent cannot.
Suppose now that Black occupied square B on the first move. In response to this mistake, White can play a simple combination. White is L, black is G, white is B, and now it's Black's turn (we are not interested in the position of the pieces in the upper half of the board, but it is assumed that there is a white piece on b4). Since occupying the g7-square is suicide, Black is forced to switch to another part of the board.
In order to understand the idea of White's combinational maneuver, one should dwell on some general principles games. In any situation on the board, the player has many bad moves and many neutral ones. The task of the opponent is to force him to use all the neutral moves and in the end make a bad one. The standard trick is to send a turn queue. The local situation is played out so that in the end it was the opponent's turn. This technique is used in the operation in Figure 9. After Black's inaccuracy and the partner's correct actions, he is forced to move outside the lower right corner.
Knowing the standard positions on the edges (Fig. 8) - what to strive for and what to avoid, it is possible to predict the outcome of the game already around the 30th move. The exact play of the "side" of the board is, as it were, an analogue of a positional game in chess. The creation of a reserve square can be compared with the possession of an open file or the formation of a passed pawn... Of course, in reversi, as in chess, a positional advantage, and even more so a material one (its role here is small), does not guarantee victory, although it increases its probability.
Other strategic principles have been developed that are applicable in certain provisions.
As in any game, there are interesting tasks and combinations in Reversi. Let's give one unique problem (in chess language - etude) proposed by one of the authors O. Stepanov. In Diagram 10, White starts and wins.
This pearl is solved by 1. e2! Let's see how events develop further. The black pieces d3 and e3 - e5 are turned over, and only the pieces d4 and d5 remain alive. How should Black play now? After the move d2 or d7 and, accordingly, the answer d1 or d8, as we see, only white chips remain on the board - the game is over. In the case of one of the moves b7, b5, b4, b3, f2, f4, f5, f7 and the corresponding answer a8, a5, a4, a2, g1, g4, g5, g8, Black is left with one single piece, which is surrounded in all directions , and with the next move White completes the game with the complete annihilation of the enemy forces.
So, Black has the forced answer g7, which yields the corner of the board. White plays, for example, f5 (a white piece appears on e5) with the inevitable h8. As a result, the lower right corner is conquered, which at such an early stage of the game is tantamount to a victory.
It is possible that this is the only position (up to symmetry) with such a small and approximately equal material, about which it can be argued that one of the parties starts and wins!
Board game Reversi was invented in the late 19th century in Great Britain and was very popular at that time, but was subsequently forgotten. In 1971, the game was revived in Japan under the name Othello, and after 6 years the game held the world championship!
The game consists of a field of 8 x 8 cells and double-sided chips Black on one side and black on the other white color(in the Ravensburger edition - gold). During the game, the pieces (which look like checkers) turn over and change their color - both names of the game, Reversi and Othello, allude to this duality.
Reversi game is designed for two players(although the Ravensburger edition now has special rules for playing alone!). Its principle is extremely simple - each player has 32 chips that they put on the field, trying to "surround" the opponent's chips horizontally, vertically or diagonally. The opponent's pieces surrounded by the player turn over and change their color, now becoming his own pieces. The winner is the player whose chips of whose color at the end of the game there are more chips on the field. Moreover, during the game, the chip can change its color several times, moving from player to player. That's actually all the rules!
Information has not reached us who exactly invented Reversi and where. One thing is known for sure - that the history of one of the versions of the game originates in London in the second half of the 19th century. Two gentlemen are credited with inventing it: John Mollet, who created a game called "The Annexation Game" in the 1870s, and Lewis Waterman, who published Reversi in The Queen magazine around 1880. Most likely, Mr. Waterman borrowed the basic idea from Mr. Mollet's game and gave it the form he wanted. One way or another, fantastically came into the world attractive game Reversi.Purpose of the game
Principles classic game very simple: Surround your opponent's pieces with your own, capture them, turn over his pieces and get the pieces of your color. The player with the most pieces of their color on the board wins the game.Preparing for the game:
Each player receives 32 chips. One player chooses the gold pieces, which means that for the rest of the game he will play these pieces with the gold side up. The other player plays the black side up chips. 24 chips are needed only for single player. Remove them before playing for the first time. playing field.Game progress
Two gold and two black chips are placed in the center of the playing field as shown in the figure. Golden starts, the player moves one of the chips on the playing field. You must move each chip on the playing field so that it is adjacent to at least the opponent's code chip. Surrounded pieces are those pieces to which an opponent's piece is adjacent in a straight line vertically, horizontally or diagonally. When one of the pieces is surrounded by two enemy pieces, the first player's piece turns over and becomes the second player's piece. opponent's pieces in more than one direction at once, you can flip all of these pieces at once, turning them into pieces of your own color. If a player is unable to move the pieces according to the rules, he skips the turn, and the turn passes to his opponent. If a player no longer has tokens during his turn, he can take one from his opponent.End of the game
The game ends when all 64 pieces are on the board, or when none of the players can make a move so as to adjoin the opponent's piece. The player with the most pieces of his color wins. In case of an equal number of chips, the player who started the game second wins.The game uses a square board of 8 × 8 cells (all cells can be the same color) and 64 special pieces, painted on different sides in contrasting colors, for example, white and black. At the beginning of the game, 4 pieces are placed in the center of the board: black on d5 and e4, white on d4 and e5. Black makes the first move. The players then move in turn. When making a move, the player must place his chip on one of the cells of the board in such a way that between this placed chip and one of the chips already on the board of his color there is a continuous row of opponent's chips, horizontal, vertical or diagonal (in other words, so that a continuous row of chips opponent turned out to be "closed" by the player's chips on both sides). All opponent's chips included in the “closed” row on this move are turned over to the other side (change color) and transferred to the player who moved. If, as a result of one move, more than one row of enemy chips is “closed” at the same time, then all the chips that are on all “closed” rows are turned over. The player has the right to choose any of the possible moves for him. If a player has possible moves, he cannot refuse a move. If the player has no legal moves, then the move is passed to the opponent. The player has the right to choose any of the possible moves for him. If a player has possible moves, he cannot refuse a move. If a player has no legal moves, then the move is passed to the opponent. The game ends when all the chips are placed on the board or when none of the players can make a move. At the end of the game, the chips of each color are counted, and the player whose chips are placed on the board more is declared the winner. In case of equality in the number of chips, a draw is counted.
Strategy Basics
Reversi is strategic game similar to checkers and chess. Just like in chess, it is customary to divide the game into three parts: opening (beginning), middlegame (mid game) and endgame (ending). However, unlike chess, the number of possible openings is much smaller here, and all of them are easy to remember. All serious players know openings 5-6 moves ahead in order to avoid deliberately losing moves at this stage. The middle game is perhaps the most “free” and at the same time difficult part of the game, when the position can either be strengthened or changed in your favor. Despite this, many seemingly lost games in the middlegame acquire new qualities when entering the final stage of the game - the endgame. The golden rule of the ending is to take your time and count. It is accepted to count chips that result in the final outcome of the game for a particular tactic. Naturally, the number of outcomes depends on which move to start counting from, and that is why computers play much better than people - they can afford to calculate all possible options (there are few of them, by computer standards) and always choose the one that minimizes the result of a person and maximize the score of the computer. There are quite a few different strategies for playing reversi, and the choice is determined by the level of training and inclinations of the player. The simplest game for beginners can be a game of capturing the corner cells of the board, which later can no longer be “repainted” in a different color, and sequentially capturing the board from the corners. A more advanced tactic is considered to be limiting the possible moves of the opponent: a position is created in which the opponent is left with only moves that suit the player, and the game proceeds in a way that is convenient for the player. As a rule, most Japanese masters are distinguished by precisely this tactic, honed to perfection. An even more advanced tactic is the "tempo" tactic, which can be characterized by the rule "take away from the enemy his most profitable moves and make them yours." This strategy requires, however, an extremely strong "sense of position". And yet, despite the presence of developed strategic principles, the most important part of success is experience. Only experience gives stability, with which comes the feeling of understanding the game and its subtleties. You can learn more about the strategy and tactics of the game in the book by Brian Rose "Othello: a minute to learn ... a whole life to improve."Reversi or Othello?
With a general identity of the game set, rules, balance and etiquette, Reversi and Othello are slightly different. These differences are:- Reversi board is usually white or red-brown. The modern board for Othello is most often green (a reference either to the grass court, or to the green cloth, familiar to card tables and billiards), while it has traditional oriental games"star" points; they do not carry any game load, they simply delimit the space of the board visually and facilitate orientation.
- In reversi, the players had a strictly fixed supply of chips - 30 pieces each, and if someone ran out of chips, he could not borrow them from an opponent; in Othello, this is not only possible, but also necessary, that is, by and large, the chips in Othello are common.
- In reversi, it was allowed to put a chip near your chips, without flipping them; in Othello this is not allowed.
- According to the rules of the reversi of the 1876 model, they started playing from an empty board - the first two moves were made by the opponents to the central four cells in any order without a coup (that is, two starting positions are possible). In Othello, the initial arrangement is fixed: the four central cells are filled with chips in a checkerboard pattern (black on d5 and e4, white on d4 and e5).
- Finally, in Reversi the first move is made by White, in Othello by Black.
In recent decades, there has been a continuous struggle between the commercial trademark "Othello" and the old, loose name "reversi". How it will end is unclear. The name "Othello", under which the game experienced its renaissance, is definitely worthy of mention, but the name "reversi" fits the game mechanics much better and does not cause unnecessary associations and literary analogies. By the way, all international tournaments are held according to the rules of Othello. The notation in both games is chess, alphanumeric. The record of the game is similar to the record of the game in Go: it is a diagram with the image of the playing field (Japanese "kifu"), on which moves are marked with circles of two colors with continuous numbering.
