The history of Reversi and the evolution of Othello
Reversi, better known today by its commercial name Othello, has simple rules and a winding history. It began in Victorian England, was reworked as Othello in Japan in the 1970s, and is now played in tournaments around the world and online.
Victorian England in the 1880s
Who invented Reversi is still argued over. Two Englishmen, Lewis Waterman and John W. Mollett, both claimed to have invented it in 1883, and each called the other a fraud. The earliest reliable mention of the game is in The Saturday Review of 21 August 1886.
The English game was played on an 8×8 board, and the starting position was not fixed. The board began empty, the first four discs went on the four central squares in whatever pattern the players chose, and each player had their own 32 discs rather than drawing from a shared pool. The core idea was already there, though. You flanked your opponent's discs and flipped them.
The game became popular in England at the end of the 19th century. In 1893 the German publisher Ravensburger started producing it as one of its first titles.
Goro Hasegawa and Othello
In 1971 Goro Hasegawa, then a 38-year-old salesman, patented the modern version of the game in Japan as Othello. He first described it as an improvement on Reversi, though from around 2000 he claimed to have invented it independently.
The name comes from Shakespeare's play. Hasegawa chose it for the drama between Othello, who is black, and Desdemona, who is white.
Hasegawa set up the Japan Othello Association in March 1973 and held the first national Othello championship that April. Later that month the toy company Tsukuda Original launched the game in Japan under his licence, and it sold well from the start. Gabriel Industries launched it in the United States in 1975. Othello sets carry the tag line "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master."
How Othello's rules differ
Reversi and Othello share the same mechanic of flanking and flipping discs. The clearest difference is how the game starts.
- A fixed start. Historical Reversi began with an empty board, and players filled the four central squares in any pattern without flipping anything. Othello always starts with four discs in the centre, white on d4 and e5 and black on e4 and d5.
- Every move must flip. In Othello a move has to flip at least one disc, a player with no such move passes, and the game ends when neither player can move.
These are the rules played today, on PlayFaceToFace included. The Reversi rules page explains each one with board examples.
Championships and computers
The first World Othello Championship was held in Tokyo in 1977, with players from five countries, and Hiroshi Inoue won it. The World Othello Federation was founded in 2005 and has run the championship since then.
The championship has been held most years since 1977. It was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside the main title it now has team, women's and youth titles.
As in chess, computers overtook the best humans. In 1997 the program Logistello won all six games of a match against world champion Takeshi Murakami, and since then top programs have been far stronger than any human player.
Reversi today
Online play brought the game to new players everywhere. It suits a screen well. Games are quick, the flips animate instantly, legal moves can be highlighted, and nothing is hidden from either player. On PlayFaceToFace you can play in real time with friends, see the board clearly and get immediate feedback while you learn, and playing online speeds up learning a lot.
Reversi is often put alongside chess and Go as a classic perfect-information strategy game. It mixes tactics, positional planning and mathematical structure while staying easy to learn, which goes a long way to explaining why it has lasted.
Many schools use it to teach logic and critical thinking, as a classroom activity and as a way into harder strategy games. It is simple enough for anyone to start and deep enough to keep students interested for years.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1883 | Lewis Waterman and John W. Mollett each claim to have invented Reversi |
| 1886 | Earliest reliable mention of the game, in The Saturday Review |
| 1893 | Ravensburger starts producing Reversi in Germany |
| 1971 | Goro Hasegawa patents Othello in Japan |
| 1973 | Tsukuda Original launches Othello in Japan |
| 1975 | Othello launches in the United States |
| 1977 | First World Othello Championship, in Tokyo |
| 1997 | Logistello beats world champion Takeshi Murakami 6–0 |
| 2005 | World Othello Federation founded |
Why the history matters when you play
Knowing how the game changed explains why its rules look the way they do, why mobility and parity sit at the centre of strategy, why corners carry so much weight, and how a Victorian parlour game became a competitive mind sport played across many cultures.
Reversi started in England and came back as Othello in Japan. Millions now play it, casually and in competition, on physical boards and online. If you are new to it, start with how to play Reversi.
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