Fang: Rules of Othello

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Rules of Othello

To have the most discs at the end of the game.

Each player starts with 32 disks at hand. One side of each disk is black, the other side is white.
One player plays their disks white side up and the other player plays their disks black side up. The player playing their disks white side up is called white, the player playing their disks black side up is called black
Black always plays first.
Both players take turns playing valid moves into empty squares. (Black plays, then White plays, then Black plays, then White plays, etc). After playing a valid move, the appropriate disks are “flipped” to the current player’s color. (See the following example for more details on valid moves and flipping disks).
If a player has no valid moves– they must pass their turn. The other player then plays a second turn in a row. If the second player still has no legal moves, they must pass again. This means that a player can potentially move 2, 3, or even 15 times in a row. When a player passes, they give one of their disks to their opponent.
The game ends when both players have no legal moves – in most cases this is when the board has no empty squares left. In rare cases – the game will end because neither player has a legal move in the position.
Valid Moves:
- Moves must be played to an empty square adjacent to a disk of the opposing color
- You must play a move that “outflanks” disks of the opposing color. Disks that are “outflanked” are flipped to the color of the disk that was played.

From the standard starting position, black plays a move to the E6 square. The E4 and E6 disks now outflank the disk on the E5 square and the white E5 disk is flipped to black.
	STANDARD START POSITION	AFTER BLACK PLAYS E6

As the second move of the game, the white player plays to the F4 square. The disk on E4 is outflanked by the D4 and F4 disks and it is flipped to white.
	BEFORE WHITE PLAYS F4	AFTER WHITE PLAYS F4

Note that disks can also be outflanked diagonally. For instance, for the third move of this game, the black player plays C3 and the disk on D4 is outflanked by the disks on C3 and E5 and it is flipped.
	BEFORE BLACK PLAYS C3	AFTER BLACK PLAYS C3

In this position, white plays to C5 outflanking the disks on C3 and C4 and they are flipped. Note that there aren’t any “chain reactions”, for instance, even though the disks on D4 and E4 are now “outflanked” by the disks on C4 (which just flipped) and F4 – they are NOT flipped.
	BEFORE WHITE PLAYS C5	AFTER WHITE PLAYS C5

Disks can also be flipped in more than one direction. For instance, in the right diagram, white plays D2 and the disks D3, D4 and D5 are outflanked by D2 and D6 and the disk on E3 is outflanked by the disks on D2 and F4.
	BEFORE BLACK PLAYS D2	AFTER BLACK PLAYS D2

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