Reversi Openings
It is quite easy to lose control
of the game in the first few moves. Play the wrong move and your opponent
will be able to restrict your choice of moves to those that work in their
favour. While the concepts discussed in the strategy
guide may help guide your opening moves it is worth looking at some
standard openings which appear to preserve the balance of control, at least
for a while.
In each position the most recently placed disc is highlighted with
a red dot. The expected difference in scores for each move were generated with WZebra's
larger opening book and a look-ahead of 24 moves. Because of the two diagonal
lines of symmetry there are at least 4 variations of each opening however only
one of each is shown below. Where the development does not lead to another named position one or more "+" symbols are used to indicate
progression. These illustrated openings generally follow promising lines
according to WZebra however the game is not "solved" (unlike
6x6 Reversi) so these are only indications
of the likely outcome for strong players following a particular line.
A list of the 77 named openings compiled by
Robert Gatliff (of which 21 are shown here) follows in the last section of this page.
Reversed Reversi
I suspect that the main advantage that is gained out of the opening in
the normal game is slightly better mobility than one's opponent. If we
assume this to be true then some of the standard openings illustrated below
are likely to be just as useful in the reversed game. However those openings which
give your opponent early access to the useful C-squares (e.g. Tamenori)
should probably be avoided or at least approached with caution.
Animated Openings, Tricks &
Traps Etc.
While this page allows you to explore a few promising variations,
the main section of this site now comprises of a JavaScript applet that
demonstrates all the standard opening sequences, illustrates some of the
potential traps that you can try to set or avoid and includes a selection of
short wipeout games and some complete regular and reversed games.
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