Реверси — Стратегия

Diag. 9: After black's move to E8

White has very few possible moves. If black plays to e8, there will be only two remaining moves for white, b2 and g2 (see Diag. 9).

Now, according to the rules of the game, white is forced to play one of these two moves. If he plays b2, black may take the a1 corner and if white plays g2, black may take the h1 corner. Furthermore, because of the six white discs on the north edge, as soon as black takes one of the corners a1 or h1, he will be able to take the other on his next move.

At this stage we can begin to develop a good strategy for playing Othello. Your opponent will not play to a C-square or an X-square if he may play elsewhere. Your objective is therefore to force him to play there. To this end, you must reduce his different move choices to the point where he only has poor moves remaining, as is the case for white in Diag. 8. Now he will be obliged to play one of these (bad) moves and you will be well on your way to a final victory.

Diag. 11: after G6-B2-E1

Diag. 10 gives another example.

If black plays to g6, there is only one legal move for white: b2. Of course, as black has no disc on the b2-e5 diagonal, he cannot immediately take the a1 corner, but he will have no trouble in recovering this diagonal, for example with e1 which flips c3 (see Diag. 11).

In Diag.s 8 and 10, black has very good mobility as he has the choice between numerous (good) moves, while white has few options and all these moves are mediocre: he has very bad mobility.

As a general rule, your objective is to limit the number of liberities (that is, the number of moves) available to your opponent, while at the same time increasing yours. This is what we call the mobility strategy. When this objective is attained, one is said to have control of the game. However, don't forget that you must force your opponent to make a bad move: it's not enough if he has even one non-disasterous choice at each move; he must have no good moves at all.