Othello the rules

▶ Play Othello

Trap your opponent's discs between two of yours and they turn to your colour. Whoever has the most discs at the end wins.

The start

An 8 × 8 board and 64 discs, black on one side and white on the other. Four discs start in the middle. Black moves first. Here the columns are named a–h and the rows 1–8 from the top.

The start. The dots are black's four possible first moves.

A move

Place a disc of your colour on an empty square so that one or more of your opponent's discs lie in a straight line — across, down or diagonally — between the new disc and another of yours, with no gaps. All those discs are flipped to your colour.

A move must flip at least one disc. If you can flip in several directions at once, every one of those lines flips.

Before: black plays d3.
After: d4 was trapped between d3 and d5 and is now black.
Three directions at once: c3 flipped d3 (across), c4 (down) and d4 (diagonally).

Passing

If you have no move that flips a disc, you pass and your opponent moves again. You may not pass while you have a move. When neither player can move — often because the board is full — the game ends.

The end

Count the discs: most discs wins. The same number is a draw.

Tip: corners can never be flipped, and edges are hard to flip. The squares next to an empty corner are dangerous: they can give your opponent the corner.

Playing here

▶ Play Othello