Printable Reversi board

What is on the sheet

One page, one board, nothing else competing for the ink.

• An 8x8 grid about 16 cm square on A4, so each square is roughly 2 cm and a standard Othello disc sits inside it comfortably.
• Coordinates on all four sides. Columns a to h left to right, rows 1 to 8 top to bottom, matching the notation used everywhere on this site and in every published game record. Notation.
• The four board dots at the corners of the central block, as on a real Othello board.
• Light markers on d4, e4, d5 and e5 showing where the four opening discs go, so nobody has to remember which colour is which.
• Setup and the flipping rule printed underneath in two short blocks.

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12345678

Printing it properly

1. Print at 100 percent. In the print dialog choose Actual size rather than Fit, if you are on A4. On US Letter, Fit to printable area is the right choice and loses nothing.
2. Use the heaviest paper your printer takes. 160 gsm card survives an evening of sliding counters around. Plain paper is fine for one game.
3. Print in black and white. The sheet is designed for it. The board tint is very light on purpose so it does not drink toner.
4. For a board that lasts, laminate it, or slide it into a clear document sleeve. Counters slide nicely on the plastic.

What to use as discs

You need up to 64 counters in two colours, or 64 objects with two distinguishable sides. In practice you rarely need all 64 at once, because every disc placed comes from one of two piles.

Setting up and playing

Put white on d4 and e5 and black on d5 and e4, so the two colours sit diagonally opposite each other. Black moves first and has four legal openings, all of which are the same position rotated.

A move is legal only if it traps a straight line of your opponent's discs between the disc you are placing and another of your own, and everything trapped flips. If nothing on the whole board would flip, you pass. When neither player can move, count discs and the larger pile wins.

• The rules in full
• How to play, step by step
• The one page printable rules sheet
• Tips for a first game

Using it in a classroom

Reversi is a good classroom game because the rules take one minute and the strategy takes years. Print one board per pair, hand out coins, and the whole thing costs nothing.

Two ideas that work. First, play on a 6x6 area of the board by agreeing to ignore the outer ring: games finish in about ten minutes and corners matter immediately. Second, after each game, get both players to count the discs out loud in pairs, which turns the scoring into arithmetic practice. More on small board play.

Prefer to play on screen?

The board on the front page is free, needs no account and marks your legal moves for you, which is a good way to learn what to look for on paper. There is a computer opponent at four strengths and a two player board for one device.