Home
A Classic Office Diversion : The Game of Othello
For a few minutes of quiet, intellectually stimulating strategic consultation with one of your colleagues, download this printable Othello board and Othello playing pieces. If you're unfamiliar with the game of Othello, rules are below.
To prepare the playing pieces, you have numerous options:
- Print the linked Othello pieces pictured above. If you have some thick paper to print on, you can probably use them as they are. Note the following: while all 64 pieces provided are black, if the page is printed on white paper, clipped, and the user then flips half the pieces, he and/or she will have magically created an equal number of white and black disks. (The previous sentence assumes a readership in upper-level management .)
- Ignore the printable Othello pieces link and simply use 64 coins, such as pennies. You can whiten one side of the coin with Whiteout, or darken one side with a permanent marker, or perhaps glue the printable pieces to one side.
- Use your doubtless fevered imagination. All you need is 64 disks with easily identifiable fronts and backs, in a size small enough for game play.
Rules of Othello (quoted from the website of the British Othello Federation. Imagine that there is such a thing!)
"Although
Othello can be played on any size board the standard game uses a board with
64 squares (8x8). The opening position is shown in the diagram opposite. The
usual way of labelling the board is A-H along the top and 1-8 down the side.
Note that this is different from the method used in games like chess. Using
this method we can refer to any square by the use of a letter and a number.
For example, the top left square is A1 and the bottom right square is H8.
Each othello disc is black on one side and white on the other. Black plays first (again different from chess) and places a disc, black side uppermost, on any square on the board such that he 'traps' at least one of his opponents pieces between the disc he has just placed and any other of his colour already on the board. Black's possible opening moves are shown as 'x' in the diagram above. If, for example, black opens with F5, he has trapped the white disc at E5 between the piece he has just played (F5) and another black piece already on the board (D5). The white disc at E5 is flipped to show the black side uppermost.
The
diagram opposite shows a game in play. It is white to move and all possible
moves are numbered. It is possible to flip several discs on a single turn. For
example, a white move at 6 flips the black discs at C4, D4, E4, F4 and G4. You
can flip discs horizontally, vertically or diagonally. For example, a white
move at 1 flips the black discs at C3 and D4. It is even possible to flip discs
in more than one direction on a single move. For example, a white move at 10
flips the black discs at F4, F5, F6 (vertically) and E6 (diagonally). It is
important to remember that you may only flip discs that lie between the disc
you have just placed and another of your colour already on the board.
Taking the previous example of a white move at 10, after white has flipped the 4 discs mentioned the black discs at C4, D4 and E4 now lie between the white disc at B4 and a disc you have just flipped at F4. However, you may NOT flip the discs at C4, D4 and E4, even though they are now trapped between two white discs, because neither of the two white discs were played on this turn. Any discs flipped must lie in a continuous line between the disc you have just placed and another disc of your colour already on the board. For example, a white move at 7 flips the black discs at B5 and C5 since they lie between the disc you have just placed (A5) and a disc already on the board (D5). However, you may NOT flip the disc at F5, even though it lies between A5 and G5, because it does not lie in a continous line from the disc you have just placed.
WINNING THE GAME!
Play continues alternately. First black, then white. If at any time a player does not have a legal move i.e. there is nowhere he can play that flips one of his opponent's discs, he must pass and his opponent plays again. It is possible to pass several times in succession. When neither player has a legal move (usually when the board is full but not always) the game ends. The winner is the player with the most pieces of his colour showing.
