Recommendations
Games like Reversi
The short answer
The closest game to Reversi is Ataxx, which uses the same discs and converts pieces instead of flipping them. After that come the Reversi variants, then the wider family of two-player games with no luck in them: Go, Hex, Gomoku, Blokus, Connect Four and checkers.
Reversi has three qualities worth chasing elsewhere: one rule you can teach in a minute, a score that means nothing until the last move, and no dice. Each game below shares at least two of them.
Almost the same game
1. Othello
Not a different game at all. Othello is Reversi with a fixed starting position, standardised equipment and a trademark. If you play Reversi in an app or online, you are playing Othello. The differences.
2. Anti-Othello
Identical rules, opposite goal: the player with fewer discs at the end wins. It is much harder than it sounds, because you cannot simply play badly. You still need mobility and corners, you just want to shed discs while keeping them. Anti-Othello.
3. Ataxx
The nearest relative outside the family. Two to four players on a 7 by 7 grid, starting with one piece in each corner. On your turn you either grow a piece into an adjacent square or jump one two squares, and every enemy piece touching where you land converts to your colour. Invented in 1988 as Infection and best known as a 1990 arcade machine. It was never sold as a physical set, but a Reversi board and discs will do.
4. Rolit
Reversi for four players, using balls with four coloured faces rather than two-sided discs. When you trap someone's ball you roll it to your colour. The trapping rule is the Reversi rule; having three opponents rather than one changes everything about how you use it.
The same idea, older
5. Hasami shogi and the tafl games
Reversi's rule, trapping a line between two of your own pieces, is called a custodian capture and it is far older than 1883. Hasami shogi from Japan and the Northern European tafl games such as hnefatafl both use it. The difference is that they remove the trapped pieces. Reversi keeps them and changes their colour, which is what makes its score swing so violently.
Two-player games with no luck
6. Go
The deep end. A 19 by 19 grid, stones that never move once placed, and capture by surrounding rather than trapping. Longer, larger and much harder, and the only game on this list that computers have not solved and never will. Reversi vs Go.
7. Chess
The same 64 squares and almost nothing else in common. Chess pieces move and are removed; Reversi discs are placed once and flip. Chess players usually lose their first few Reversi games by counting discs, which is exactly the wrong instinct. Othello vs chess.
8. Checkers, or draughts
Played on the same board with similar-looking pieces, which is why the two games shared a box for a century. Checkers is a movement and capture game rather than a placement game, and it was weakly solved in 2007: perfect play draws, the same answer Reversi got in 2023.
9. Gomoku, or five in a row
Played with Go equipment, and the fastest of these to learn. Place a stone, and the first to five in a line wins. It shares Reversi's quality of a single rule with real depth underneath, and like Reversi it has been solved: in its plain form the first player wins with perfect play, which is why competitive versions add rules to hold the first player back.
10. Connect Four
The most Reversi-like of the children's games. One rule, immediate feedback, and a position that can flip from winning to lost in one move. Also solved: the first player wins by playing the middle column. Good for the same audience and the same ten minutes.
11. Hex
A rhombus of hexagons where you place a stone each turn and try to connect your two sides. Nothing is ever captured and nothing ever moves, so a Hex position only ever accumulates. Mathematically it is a beautiful game: a finished board always has exactly one winner, and there can never be a draw.
12. Blokus
Two to four players fitting coloured shapes onto a grid, each new piece touching your own colour at a corner only. The shared idea is running your opponents out of places to play, which is exactly what mobility means in Reversi. It is the friendliest game here for a family table.
13. Nine Men's Morris
Roman in origin and still played across Europe. Each player puts nine pieces on the board, then slides them, trying to line three up. Every time you make a line you remove one of your opponent's pieces, and a player reduced to two pieces has lost. The Reversi connection is the squeeze: most games end because one side runs out of useful places to go rather than because of a single dramatic move. It was solved in 1993 and is a draw with perfect play.
Which one should you pick?
| If you liked this about Reversi | Try |
|---|---|
| Discs changing sides and the score swinging | Ataxx, Rolit |
| One rule, deep game | Gomoku, Hex, Connect Four |
| Running your opponent out of moves | Blokus, Nine Men's Morris |
| Controlling space rather than pieces | Go, Hex |
| Exact endgame calculation | Checkers, chess |
| The same game with a twist | Anti-Othello, larger-board Reversi |
Before you move on
Reversi is worth a bit more of your time than most people give it. Almost everyone who bounces off it does so because they played greedily, lost, and concluded the game was random. It is not; the disc count is simply the wrong thing to watch.
Three pages will change how it feels: mobility, corners and parity. Give it three more games after reading those and see whether it still seems shallow.
Related pages
- Reversi variants, different boards, different goals, more players.
- Reversi vs Othello, one game, two names.
- History of Reversi, 1883 to now.
- Play Reversi, four difficulty levels, free.
Frequently asked questions
What game is most like Reversi?
Ataxx. It is played with the same discs on a 7 by 7 grid, and a move converts every enemy piece next to where you land. It keeps the feeling of a score that swings wildly and stays meaningless until the end.
Is Othello a different game from Reversi?
It is the same game with a fixed starting position and a trademarked name. Everything a modern app calls Reversi is really Othello. The differences in full.
What can I play with a Reversi set?
Anti-Othello, where the player with fewer discs wins, and Ataxx, which was never sold as a physical game but works on a Reversi board. Both use the same 64 discs. More variants.
Which of these is easiest to learn?
Connect Four, then Reversi, then Gomoku. All three have one rule and no special cases. Go, chess and Blokus all take longer before your first real game.