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Othello box art
1883 Ranked #3,155

Othello

Two-player abstract game where rivals trap opposing discs between their own to flip their colors. Captures can reverse control across the board, so every placement must create future flips while avoiding a response that turns your pieces against you.

Abstract Abstract Strategy Enclosure Square Grid Category: Combinatorial

Players

2

Play time

Not listed

Age

8+

Complexity

2.07/5

Rating

6.13

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.4/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 3.9/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

Trap other pieces between your own to capture them, but be aware that the opponent may do the same. Pieces will change sides (colors) dozens of times.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

Trap other pieces between your own to capture them, but be aware that the opponent may do the same. Pieces will change sides (colors) dozens of times. The winner is the one with the most pieces when no more pieces can be played on the board. In Hong Kong, an advertising campaign by Texwood for its Apple Jeans involved the use of Othello sets, retitled Ping Guo Qi (Apple Chess). The sucess of the campaign raised the popularity of the game, and Ping Guo Qi or Apple Chess has since become an alternative name for Hei Bai Qi (Black and White Chess), the more traditional name for the game. Goro Hasegawa changed Setup of Reversi a bit and renamed it as Othello inspired from Shakespeare's play.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
No editions imported yet.

Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

No files imported yet.

Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2
Best with
2
Play time
30 min
Age
8+
Complexity
2.1/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

3
Goro Hasegawa John W. Mollett Lewis Waterman

Artists

4
John Adams Georg Appl Kinetic Machai

Publishers

1
(Public Domain)

Linked items

No published linked games yet.