Estimated Read Time: 6 mins | Updated: December 18, 2025

Reversi is a classic two-player board game that is easy to learn but offers deep strategic play. Using an 8×8 grid and disks that are dark on one side and light on the other, players compete to control the board by the end of the game. The objective is simple: finish with more disks of your color showing than your opponent.

Table of Contents

• Game Setup
• Rules of Play
• Passing and Game End
• Key Strategies
• Conclusion

1. Game Setup

• The board is an 8×8 grid, similar to a chessboard.
• Each player chooses a color — dark or light.
• The game begins with four disks placed in the center: two dark and two light arranged diagonally in a square.

2. Rules of Play

Players take turns placing one disk of their color on an empty square. Each move must result in at least one capture.

A capture occurs when the newly placed disk, together with another disk of the same color already on the board, flanks one or more of the opponent’s disks in a straight line — horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. All of the opponent’s pieces trapped in that line are flipped to the player’s color.

If a placement captures disks in multiple directions, all of them are flipped at once.

3. Passing and Game End

If a player cannot make a legal move, they must pass. Play continues until neither player can move, which usually happens when the board is completely filled. The winner is the player with the most disks showing their color at the end.

4. Key Strategies

• Corners are critical: Once you control a corner, it can never be flipped, and it often secures the adjoining edges.
• Edges are valuable: Controlling the edges reduces your opponent’s mobility and gives you safer moves.
• Avoid overflipping: Taking too many pieces at once may give your opponent access to stronger moves. Sometimes fewer flips are smarter.
• Plan ahead: Reversi is a game of momentum. The last few turns can swing the outcome dramatically — think beyond the immediate move.

5. Conclusion

Reversi combines simple mechanics with deep strategy. The rules are straightforward — place a disk, flip your opponent’s pieces, and aim to hold the majority by the end — but mastery comes from patience, foresight, and control of key positions.

Its mix of simplicity and depth has kept Reversi popular for more than a century, and every match is a reminder that even a single move can shift the balance of power across the board.