Othello - From Beginner to Master by Randy Fang (2003).pdf - Reversi (Othello) - morefaya2006

O THELLO :

F ROM B EGINNER TO M ASTER

OPYRIGHT ¨ 2003,

2003, R ANDY

ANDY F ANG

ANG

C OPYRIGHT

2003,

OPYRIGHT

ANDY

Othello: From Beginner to Master – A Few Words

A FEW WORDS

After the 2003 US National Championships, I set out on a mission to do what few others have even

attempted – to write a book about Othello. Former World Champion Brian Rose has been writing his

book for over 3 years and every time I asked the other tournament regulars about it, there was no new

news on it. I finally decided that I was tired of waiting and started to work on my own book.

While most of my counterparts are usually only playing against other top players, I play many games

against people who are still learning, and I think I have special insight into the kinds of questions that

they might have. I’ve put a lot of effort into the diagrams and exercises, in fact, many of the exercises

in this book are based on positions that I consistently see beginning level players misplay.

I’m sure that there are mistakes in this version. In fact, every time I go through it I find one more thing

I need to fix, however, I think that the form that it is in now is suitable for general consumption. I’m still

working on the rest of the book. It’s taken me three full months to get through the beginner material. I

imagine it will take me three months to four months get through the intermediate section, and another

three months to four months get through the advanced section.

Once I finish all of this and re-edit it (add a table of contents, for instance), I intend to look for a

publisher. If there is no interest in it from the established publishing community, I will be looking into

selling it (the thought of printing out copies at Kinko’s and shipping them myself has crossed my

mind). Part of the reason I’m giving this away is that it’s good for the Othello community. I’m also

hoping that people will like it and it will generate interest in my book. If you have any comments, or

you would like to point out any serious errors, please feel free to do so. I’ve set up a Yahoo group

specifically for discussion about the book at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/randysothellobook .

Happy Flipping,

Randy Fang

October 26, 2003

Othello: From Beginner to Master – Forward

I NTRODUCTION

Forward

You’re probably reading this book because you want to learn how to play Othello™* well. Maybe

you’ve just learned the game or maybe you don’t know it at all. My goal is to speed up the process to

mastery by stepping you through many of the lessons that every master level player has learned

through hard work and a lot of practice. I’ll start off at the most basic level and progress from basic

principles to some of the more flexible principles and exceptions that Master level players apply in

championship level play.

In essence, what I’m trying to do is write the Othello equivalent of Nimzovich’s My System (a chess

book). At the current time, there is no book in the Othello world to form the basis for discussion and

analysis of games. Most master level discussions in the US occur over a real board at infrequent

tournaments and I’ve tried to present as much of the terminology as possible. By no means is all the

information complete and it’s only as accurate as myself and the people I’ve consulted while writing

the material. Just like My System has done in chess – this book is meant to provide a basis for

analytical discussion as well as revisions and exceptions to the theories presented.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who is involved in the Othello community for

their support. I’d particularly like to thank Gunnar Anderson for making WZebra and its toolset for

making the images in this document freely available.

Finally, many deserved thanks go out to my two editors and good friends: Amanda Jones (writing

style and beginner level feedback) and Edmund Yiu (technical and master level feedback).

* O THELLO IS A REGISTERED T RADEMARK OF A NJAR C O .

Othello: From Beginner to Master – Tools of the Trade

Tools of the Trade

Two Options – High Tech and Low Tech

Before we start, I’d like to take a moment to talk about what equipment you might want to get your

hands on before reading this book. As a minimum requirement, you’ll need to have an Othello board

of some kind on hand to play a few sample games with yourself or preferably with an opponent to get

a feel for the rules and principles that I will introduce.

If you’re more technologically inclined , I recommend you download WZebra from the Internet

( http://www.nada.kth.se/~gunnar/othello.html ). You can use it to set up the positions presented in the

book or to play a few quick games to get acquainted with how to play. For beginning through

advanced players, the lowest skill setting on WZebra will provide a HIGHLY challenging opponent ,

don’t be discouraged, WZebra is a very strong player. You might consider downloading one of the

“weaker” Othello playing programs to play with so you don’t get discouraged. A much better idea is to

seek out competition on the Internet. There are several places that you can play online, here’s a short

list of some of the sites that are available and the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Gaming Site

Advantages

Disadvantages

MSN Gaming Zone

( http://zone.msn.com/reversi )

Slightly “friendlier” interface than

the rest.

Can’t resume a game after a

disconnection

Non-standard color scheme

Cheaters

No Timed Games

Yahoo Games

( http://games.yahoo.com )

Ability to resume games after a

disconnection

Timed Games

Starting position is backwards

Cheaters

Kurnik.pl

( http://kurnik.pl/en )

Ability to resume games after a

disconnection

Timed Games

Database of previous games

Mostly Polish players – Not

many English speaking players

Playsite

( http://www.playsite.com )

Ability to resume games after a

disconnection

Timed Games

Lack of players

Vinco Online Games (VOG)

( http://vogclub.com )

High quality human competition

Ability to resume games after a

disconnection

Timed Games

Database of previous games

Partially effective anti-cheat

features

NOT FREE

Many people have attitude

problems

Othello: From Beginner to Master – Othello Notation

Othello Notation

Standard Starting Position

On the left you’ll find the standard Othello starting

position. Each side starts with two disks in the

center of the board.

Standard Othello notation is based on a grid. The

letters run from left to right and represent the

columns. The numbers run from top to bottom

and represent the rows. This means that the top-

left corner is A1, the bottom-left corner is A8, the

top-right corner is H1, and the bottom-right corner

is H8. In the standard starting position, black

has disks at E4 and D5. White has disks at D4

and E5.

All the diagrams in this book will have the

columns and rows labeled appropriately on the

top and left edges so, while memorization of this

grid will be helpful, it should not be necessary.

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