How to play Othello

Othello is the tidiest game on our list. One kind of piece, one kind of move, and a board that changes colour in waves. Its old slogan promises a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, and for once the slogan is honest.

The board and the pieces

The board is an eight by eight grid, all one colour. The discs are black on one side and white on the other, and they belong to whoever's colour is facing up, which changes constantly. The game starts with four discs in the centre, two of each colour arranged diagonally. Black moves first.

How you win

When the game ends, whoever has more discs face up wins. That is the whole thing. The game ends when the board is full, or earlier if neither player has a legal move left. Thirty-two discs each is a draw.

The rules that matter

Every move must flip something. You place a disc so that a straight line of enemy discs (in any direction, including diagonals) is trapped between your new disc and one of yours already on the board. Everything trapped flips to your colour, in every direction at once if you have trapped several lines. If a placement would flip nothing, it is not a legal move.

Passing is automatic. If you have no legal move, your turn passes by itself and your opponent goes again. You never choose to pass, and you can never be tricked out of a turn you could have used.

The count is all that counts. The winner is whoever holds more discs at the end, not whoever captured most along the way. Big early walls of your colour tend to melt. The corners are the exception: a disc in a corner can never be trapped, so it can never be flipped, which is why good players fight so hard for them.

Draws. An equal split, thirty-two discs each, is a draw. You can also offer your opponent a draw, up to three offers each per game. On Dream Games a drawn game means nobody loses their stake.

How a match works on Dream Games

Both players put up the same stake, and both stakes are set aside before the first move. The winner takes 90% of the pot and we keep 10% as our fee. If the game is a draw, both players get their stake back in full and we take nothing.

Each player has ten minutes on the clock for the whole game. Your clock only runs while it is your turn. Run out of time and you lose, even if you are ahead on the board.

Try it

The best way in is simply to play. Practice is free: pick a bot on easy, medium or hard, or send a friend a link. Nothing is staked and nothing is recorded, so you can experiment as much as you like.

When you are ready to play for something, find an opponent in the lobby. You see the stake and the payout before you accept, and nothing leaves your balance until you say yes.