Introduction to Reversi(Othello) Game

1. Reversi Game

Reversi is a widely known two-player board game. Its origin can be traced back to around 1880, when Lewis Waterman and James Mollett created the game Reversi. In 1898, the German game company Ravensburger acquired the game and released it commercially.

In 1970, Hasegawa Goro popularized the game in Japan under the name Reversi. The name was taken from Shakespeare’s play Othello; however, Hasegawa claimed that his inspiration came from the game of Go rather than borrowing from Reversi. Despite this claim, it appears that his denial of any connection to Reversi was motivated by copyright issues. Considering that the gameplay is similar to that of Reversi and that Hasegawa was familiar with European culture, it is highly likely that he did, in fact, borrow ideas from Reversi.

Hasegawa commercialized Reversi through the toy company Tsukuda, leading to the version of the game we know today. Although some regions may use alternative names, the game’s roots are in Reversi, and it is still commonly referred to as Reversi in many countries and computer programs.

Rules of Reversi

The rules of Reversi are simple and straightforward.

• Game Board and Pieces:

The game is played on an 8×8 grid. Each of the two players has 32 pieces, each with one white side and one black side, allowing the pieces to be flipped to show either color. At the start of the game, two white pieces and two black pieces are placed alternately in the center of the board. In recent years, some variations have introduced alternative starting configurations to counter advanced computer AI.

• Gameplay:

Players take turns placing one piece on the board. A legal move requires that by placing a piece, at least one straight line (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) is formed in which one or more of the opponent’s pieces are sandwiched between the newly placed piece and another piece of the player’s own color. “Sandwiched” means that there must be no empty spaces or interruptions between the two pieces. When a piece is placed, all of the opponent’s pieces that are sandwiched in any direction are flipped to become the player’s pieces.

• Game End:
If a player has no legal moves, they must pass their turn. The game ends when neither player can make a move. At the conclusion of the game, the pieces on the board are counted, and the player with the greater number of pieces is declared the winner.

2. Implementation Goals

The objective of this project is to develop artificial intelligence for Reversi. We plan to implement a range of versions—from a simple Reversi game using neural networks to more advanced versions that employ reinforcement learning and deep learning.