Reversi Game
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Strategy

Reversi Strategy & Tips

A practical strategy guide for Reversi: control the corners, avoid the X-squares early, value mobility over disc count, and switch to exact counting once the endgame arrives.

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The core idea

Position first, disc count later

Almost every strong Reversi habit comes down to two ideas: protect the corners and the squares around them, and resist the urge to flip the most discs on any single turn. A big early lead in disc count often collapses once your opponent starts taking the corners you left exposed.

  • 01

    Corners are forever

    A disc placed on a corner square can never be flipped again by either player. Play toward the corners whenever a safe opportunity appears, and never hand one away for a short-term gain elsewhere on the board.

  • 02

    Avoid the X-squares early

    The square diagonally adjacent to each empty corner is the single most dangerous square on the board. Playing it before the corner is settled routinely hands your opponent the corner on their next move. Leave it alone unless you have calculated the follow-up.

  • 03

    Mobility beats disc count

    In the opening and midgame, how many legal moves you have available matters far more than how many discs you currently own. A player with more options can steer the board; a player with few options is forced into bad squares or an unwanted pass.

  • 04

    Think about what you give away

    Every move you make opens new squares for your opponent's reply. Before flipping the most discs available, check whether the resulting position hands over an edge or a corner. The safer move is often better than the greedier one.

  • 05

    C-squares are conditional

    The squares directly next to a corner along an edge ("C-squares") can be safe or dangerous depending on the exact position. As a simple starting habit, treat them with the same caution as X-squares until you have more experience reading the board.

  • 06

    Count exactly in the endgame

    Once the board is nearly full, position matters less than arithmetic. Count discs carefully for each of your remaining candidate moves rather than relying on instinct — small counting mistakes are the most common way close endgames are lost.

  • 07

    Use undo to compare

    Undo here is unlimited and costs nothing. Try a move, see how the board looks afterward, and take it back if you find a better idea. Treat a close decision as something worth testing rather than committing to on instinct.

By difficulty

How the fight changes

The habits above apply at every level. What changes is how much room for error you have — see the difficulty levels section of the guide.

  • On Easy

    The computer plays many random moves and rarely fights for corners. Use this mode to get comfortable with the flipping rule and legal-move highlighting without being punished for early mistakes.

  • On Normal

    The computer plays sound, sensible Reversi and will take a corner or edge you leave open. The habits on this page — mobility, corner discipline, avoiding X-squares — are usually enough to win consistently.

  • On Hard

    The computer searches deep and solves the final stretch of the game exactly. Expect a real fight for every corner, and expect precise endgame counting to matter for the final result.

Ready to put it into practice? Read the full how-to-play guide or jump straight in.

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