Othello is another 2-player logic game. Even though we’re a family of four, oftentimes, one or more people are not interested in playing a game. This makes 2-player games super important to us!

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Like Checkers and Chess, Othello uses an 8×8 grid. The version we have has pockets that the discs are placed into. I’m still hoping to be able to find or make a magnetic board that we can use with all three games, maximizing our gameplay while minimizing the space taken.

There are 64 discs; 32 per player. Each disc has a black side and a white side. I hope that we’ll be able to drill into the discs and glue in a metal rod that will both be attracted to the magnet in the board, and allow us to flip the disc over (and still be attracted to the magnet).

Placing the first piece. Black always goes first, and you can see that the black piece at the top is flanking the white piece underneath it (with the help of the bottom white piece).

I’ll keep you updated on whether we’re able to find or make this magnetic version of Othello. Unicorns might not exist natively, but they can sometimes be created!

The white piece on the right has been flipped over to black, since it was flanked by 2 black pieces.

To begin, four discs are placed in the center of the board. The first player uses black. They place a disc, and must place it so at least 1 white disc is flanked. All discs that are flanked are flipped over.

It’s white’s turn now. They place another white piece on the right, flanking the bottom black piece, so it is flipped over to white.

Much like Checkers, if a move is possible, it must be made. I love this, because it makes what could be an antagonistic game, just about logic. It’s not a personal attack, it’s just following the rules of the game.

For black’s turn, they place a piece in the bottom right-hand corner, flanking the white piece on the right. This piece is turned over and is now black.

Othello is actually a rather modern game, created by Goro Hasegawa while he was attending school in Japan. It was later released commercially in 1973. Hasegawa was inspired by a traditional board game called Go, and named his game after Shakespeare’s play.

White finally has a chance to flank more than one piece! They place another white piece at the top, so they can flip the two pieces between it and the bottom white piece over to their white side.

However, according to other sources, it was first released as Reversi in England in 1880 by Lewis Waterman. He may have taken his inspiration from a similar game called The Game of Annexation. The Game of Annexation was created by James Mollett in 1870.

Black now has a chance to flank two white pieces. By placing another black piece on the left, the two white pieces on the bottom are flipped over to black.