Win at Othello: 15 Tips & Strategies to Win More Often

Othello is a world-famous strategy game that, as the tagline says, takes a minute to learn but a lifetime to master. I first played Othello as a child with my dad and all these years later I still enjoy playing it with my wife and daughter. I get pretty competitive, so when we started playing Othello more often I decided to learn some more advanced strategies beyond what I had picked up on my own over the years. These Othello strategies are powerful tools to increase your winning chances.

In general, the best Othello strategies are to minimize the number of tiles you flip early in the game, create stable discs by claiming corners and edges, and remain flexible. More advanced strategies include creating and exploiting ‘wedges’ and controlling the long diagonals late in the game.

These strategies and tips below range from seemingly obvious to fairly advanced, but I’ll dive deeper into why each of them is important and how you can implement them in your own games. Remember that, as with most strategy games, these tips are general guidelines – not hard and fast rules. Experienced opponents will likely know most or all of these strategies as well, which is what makes the game fun!

Remember the ultimate goal of the game

Many beginners in Othello try to flip as many discs as possible on every turn. This has become known as the ‘maximum disc strategy’ and if you’ve played even a few games you will have quickly realized that it is not particularly effective. In fact, it is the exact opposite of how experienced and knowledgeable players go about things.

Remember that the winner of Othello is whoever has the most discs at the end of the game, not who has flipped the most discs on previous turns. Counterintuitively, it is usually considered an advantage to have fewer discs in the early and middle game. All of the rest of the tips and strategies are built upon this one goal: to help you end up with more discs than your opponent at the end of the game.

Create as many ‘stable’ discs as possible

In Othello, a ‘stable’ disc is the name we give to any disc that can never be flipped again. These discs are locked in place as their current color because they cannot be ‘sandwiched’ by the opposite color. Having a large number of stable discs is a huge advantage on which you can and should build.

Most blocks of stable discs originate from a corner. Even novice Othello players know that the corners are the most valuable spaces on the board, but they may not fully understand why. Corner discs are inherently stable and they provide a foundation from which you can build a larger block of stable discs.

Flip fewer tiles early in the game

Advanced Othello players know that the placement of discs is far more important than the number of discs they currently have on the board. In high-level Othello play it is common to see players making ‘quiet’ moves in the early and middle games, meaning moves that flip as few discs as possible.

Having a few well-placed discs is far more useful than having a lot of discs covering most of the board. When your opponent has a lot of discs compared to you it gives you more options to play while limiting their available moves.

TIP: There are a ton of different versions of Othello for sale, but we really like our Official Othello Set (link to Amazon) because it has slots for unplayed discs and ridges to keep tiles in place on the board.

While it is advantageous to make ‘quiet’ moves, be careful not to allow your opponent to flip all of your discs on their next turn. If you

Avoid playing in squares adjacent to the corner

Since corners are the most valuable real estate in Othello it is usually best to prevent your opponent from being able to claim them. This means that it is usually unwise to play in a space adjacent to a corner. In Othello strategy books and guides these are sometimes referred to as ‘X’ and ‘C’ squares.

The other side of this coin is that you should try to bait or even force your opponent to play in corner-adjacent spaces, allowing you to claim them for yourself. There are, of course, times when playing in corner-adjacent spaces is unavoidable. For example, if you control the entire side of a board it is usually smart to play in the adjoining ‘C’ square because it gives you another stable edge disc.

Leave yourself with options (mobility)

It is extremely important to have several options to choose from in Othello. This is known as ‘mobility’ and it gives you more flexibility and control over the direction of the game. There is no worse feeling in Othello than when you have only one (or a few) move options and all of them are clearly bad.

The best way to give yourself good mobility is to have a few centrally located discs. These discs are usually optimally placed to give you many move options from the opposing colored discs radiating out from the center.

While you should strive for high mobility, it also pays to constrict your opponent and leave them with few move options. If you see an opportunity to flip a few key discs and leave them only with bad move options you should jump at the chance. This is the most common tactic that results in a player having to finally concede a corner space to their opponent.

Avoid having ‘frontier’ discs

A ‘frontier’ disc is any disc that lies next to an empty space, usually away from the center of the board. Conversely, ‘interior’ discs are discs that have no empty adjacent spaces. As a general strategy, it is usually best to avoid having a lot of frontier discs because they give your opponent more mobility and control of the game.

When your opponent has lots of frontier discs it usually means that you have more mobility because there are more empty spaces adjacent to their discs. The player with more frontier discs

Visualize all possible moves

One of the most important strategies in Othello is to take a full accounting of all of your available moves and the effects they will have on the board. Many beginners simply don’t see some moves that are available to them, even if those moves are objectively best.

It can be useful to take a few moments at the beginning of every turn to deliberately look at each empty space and see if you can possibly play there. If it is, try to visualize the effects that the move will have on the board. Continue this exercise until you have exhausted all of the possible options so that you don’t miss any potential good moves.

Avoid the ‘parallel’ opening as white

Since Othello has a set opening position (unlike its close cousin, Reversi), there are very few opening variations in the first few moves. In fact, whatever black plays on the first move is effectively the same move just with a different board orientation.

As white, you effectively have 3 different choices on your first move that will dictate how the game evolves. These three openings are known as the parallel, diagonal, and perpendicular openings, named for the orientation of the white discs.

The parallel opening is generally considered to be the weakest and worst of the white openings and it is rarely seen by high-level players. There is a lot of discussion about which is better between the diagonal and perpendicular, but both are considered viable and better than the parallel. The reasons for this are quite complicated and probably aren’t important to players at our level, but in general, just know that the parallel opening should usually be avoided.

Play in the center of the board early

This strategy is fairly broad and it coincides with several of the others in this list, which makes it a good one to keep at the forefront when first starting out. When speaking about the ‘center’ of the board, this refers to the 16 central squares, including and surrounding the 4 central starting squares.

Playing in the center gives you better mobility and restricts your opponent’s ability to play on the edges and corners. It also tends to give you fewer frontier discs and keeps your discs more compact.

Keep your discs compact

When your discs are compact it tends to give your opponent less mobility because there are fewer ways to play off of them. It is easier to find moves when there are many opposite-colored discs scattered over the board than when they are all clustered together, especially if they are stable discs.

In general, it is important not to leave empty spaces or ‘holes’ between your discs. These holes can be exploited by your opponent to create long-term strategic advantages, especially if these holes are located on the edge of the board. More on this later.

Avoid and exploit ‘wedges’

A ‘wedge’ in Othello is when a player can place a disc between two of the opponent’s stable discs on the edge of the board. This usually occurs when there is 1 empty edge space between two discs of the same color, but can occur with any odd number of spaces (1, 3 or 5).

Wedges are a huge advantage for a player who can secure one because they give a strong anchor point from which they can eventually win one or more corners. A wedged disc cannot be securely flipped by the opponent, so it is a continual threat if the opponent plays in a ‘C’ square.

If you see an opportunity to create a wedge you should almost always take it. They are very tricky to deal with and they severely limit your opponent’s viable moves. Creating a wedge will usually lead to you winning one or even two corners.

Avoid ‘unbalanced’ edges

In Othello, an ‘unbalanced’ edge refers to any edge that has a string of uncentered discs on an edge that with both corners unoccupied. Unbalanced edges are more vulnerable to attack than ‘balanced’ edges, which are made of a string of discs that are centered along an edge.

The reason unbalanced edges are worse than balanced ones is that they are more susceptible to wedges, which we discussed above. If you have an unbalanced edge it is usually wise to make it balanced, if possible. Similarly, if you can force or bait your opponent into having an unbalanced edge you should look to attack and exploit it – usually using a wedge.

Calculate and count in the endgame

At the end of a game of Othello, there are very few spaces on the board and even fewer available moves for each player. These last few moves are crucial, since more and more of the discs on the board will become stable and they shape the final outcome on the board.

It is worth taking the time to really visualize the effects that your move will have on the board and try to think ahead to what your opponent will do on their next turn. Sometimes it simply comes down to choosing between two or three moves and counting how many discs you’ll end up with after each. Make sure to also think about your opponent’s best next move and factor that into your decision.

You don’t have to count every disc on the board each time you calculate. You can simply count the discs on the board as it currently stands, and then factor in the changes from your next move and your opponent’s next move. Count the number of discs your move will flip, and then subtract the number of discs your opponent’s move will flip. The result is the net effect of that round of moves and it should help guide your decision making late in the game.

Control the long diagonals late in the game

Control of the two long diagonals on the board (extending from one corner to the opposite corner) is very often the deciding factor at the end of a game of Othello. I recently lost a game against my wife where I missed her ability to take control of a diagonal and she stole the win in the last few moves!

Controlling these diagonals is crucial because it allows you to safely play in the ‘X’ squares without allowing your opponent to immediately claim a corner. This very often means that you will eventually win the corner(s) and the game.

When implementing this strategy, you have to be careful not to allow your opponent to ‘cut’ the diagonal which would give them the ability to claim a corner on the next turn.

Look to swindle your opponent

One of the key differences between Othello and Reversi is that if a player has no moves in Othello then that player simply skips his turn and play continues to the other player (giving them two moves in a row). In Reversi, the game simply ends if a player has no available moves.

At times during a game of Othello, particularly near the very end of the game, it is possible to leave your opponent with no available moves. This means you get to make two moves in a row and it can often be the deciding factor in the game. Look out for these opportunities and take advantage of them when you can!