It`s Not Just Black And White (Othello)

Member Name: sue26

Product:	Othello
Date:	14/03/02 (631 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun Game

Disadvantages: Requires lots of concentration to win

There`s not many board games that can keep me interested for long, and apart from scrabble, othello is the only one I`ll play regularly without getting bored.

Othello is a strategic board game and is played on a green felt covered board that is divided into a grid of 64 squares. To play the game you use reversible counters, the counters are black one side, and white on the other side. When not in use, the counters are stored in two little wells at the side of the board, these wells have a flip over cover that clicks into place to stop you from losing them. Unlike chess it only takes a minute to learn how to play othello, but it takes a lifetime to master the game properly.

Othello was invented by a Japanese games enthusiast called Goro Hasegawa in 1971 and is also sometimes known as Reversi. It is the best-selling licensed strategy game in the world and you can play on the proper board or you can log onto the internet and play online or by e-mail. The Pope is a big fan of othello and plays for mental stimulation.

The game is for two players, and to start each player chooses whether they want to be black or white. The aim of the game is to turn over counters on the board so most of them are your colour.

The Rules

Once you have chosen your colour, you each place two of your counters on the board. The counters are placed on the central four squares on the grid, black diagonal to black, and white diagonal to white.

Black always goes first. You place another counter on the board so that you trap your opponent`s counters. This means that if you are the black counter you have to place it on the board next to a white one, but there must already be another black counter on the board opposite the one you have just placed. When you have trapped an opponent`s counter, you then turn it over so that it is the same colour as your own. Try and trap as many counters in one go as you can. For example, if there is a black cou
nter down with four white ones next to it, you then place another black one down opposite the black one already down to be able to trap all four. You can play a move either sideways, lengthways or diagonally.

If it comes to a point in the game where you can`t trap any of your opponent`s counters, then you have to miss a turn.

The game finishes when neither player can make any more moves.The player with the most counters of their colour on the board is the winner.

If you can get a lot of your counters along the edges and in the four corners, then you will have an advantage over your opponent.

Never play your turn hastily without thinking it over properly, always try to think ahead. Look at all the places where you can play your counter and work out whether your opponent can gain from you putting it in a certain place.

This is a very hard game to describe to someone who hasn`t seen it without actually having a board in front of you, so I hope all this made sense.

The more you play othello the more you will learn. As you get better at playing you will discover more new tactics to use. Nobody could ever be an expert at this game because even the best of players will always find some new tactic whenever they play.

I`m not too sure how much this game is new because I paid £1 for mine at a car boot sale. It`s a very enjoyable game to play if you like strategy games, but you`ll need peace and quiet because it requires a lot of concentration. My best ever game was when I managed to turn the entire board into my colour before the board was fully used up, I bet I`ll never manage that again.

The only disadvantage I can really find to othello, is that it`s too easy to knock the counters out of the way because the outline of the grid isn`t raised like it is on a deluxe scrabble board. It doesn`t matter if you are new to the game and you are playing against somebody more experienced because it`s more do
wn to luck than judgement, know matter how good you are you`ll never be able to spot every available move on the board, so it`s so easy for your opponent to suddenly take control of the game.

Othello is made by Mattel and is available from most toy shops, but because it`s been around for quite a while you`ll often find it second hand in charity shops and car boot sales like I did.

Summary: