Rocket Reversi: play Reversi online free

What is Rocket Reversi?

Rocket Reversi is the classic disc-flipping strategy game on an 8 by 8 board, ready to play in your browser. Place a disc so that it traps a line of your opponent's discs between it and another of yours, and every trapped disc flips to your colour in a ripple of light. The board shows every legal move, a running disc count and whose turn it is, so you can start playing in seconds.

Play the computer at four levels, from Easy, which is happy to give away corners, to Insane, which reads the opening from its own book and plays the last fourteen moves perfectly. Or invite a friend online with a link or a code, take on the next player in a quick match, or share one screen. Hints, undo, a full move list with replay and your win streaks are all built in, and your game is saved if you close the tab.

How to play Rocket Reversi

1. Choose how to play at the top: vs Computer (pick Easy, Medium, Hard or Insane and your colour), Online, or Same screen. Black always moves first.
2. Glowing dots mark your legal moves. A move is legal when the new disc traps one or more of your opponent's discs in a straight line, across, up and down or diagonally, between it and a disc you already have.
3. Tap or click a dot to place your disc. Every trapped disc in every direction flips to your colour; one move can flip several lines at once.
4. If you have no legal move, your turn passes automatically and the board tells you so. If neither player can move, the game is over.
5. When the game ends, the player with more discs of their colour wins. Equal counts are a draw.
6. Use Hint for a suggestion and Undo to take a move back against the computer. The move list lets you step through the whole game and replay it.

Rocket Reversi tips and strategy

• Corners can never be flipped back. Take them when you can, and avoid the squares diagonally next to an empty corner (the X-squares): they usually hand your opponent the corner.
• Flipping lots of discs early is a trap. Strong players keep few discs and many choices; the player with more moves in the middlegame usually wins the endgame.
• Try to leave your opponent with as few legal moves as possible (low mobility) so they are forced into bad squares.
• Avoid building long walls of your discs along the frontier next to empty squares. Quiet moves that flip interior discs give your opponent fewer options.
• Edges are strong only when they are stable. An edge disc next to an empty corner can be flipped back later.
• Parity matters at the end: try to make the last move in each empty region of the board, so your opponent runs out of safe moves first.

Reversi rules in brief

Reversi is played on an 8 by 8 board with 64 two-sided discs, dark on one side and light on the other. The game starts with four discs in the centre, two of each colour placed diagonally, and Black moves first. On your turn you must place a disc that outflanks at least one line of your opponent's discs; all outflanked discs in every direction are flipped. If you cannot outflank anything you pass, and if neither player can move the game ends and the discs are counted. A game lasts at most 60 moves, and the result can swing until the very last flip.

The four computer levels

Easy plays quickly and greedily, often grabbing the move that flips the most discs and rarely thinking about corners, so newcomers can win. Medium looks a few moves ahead and values corners and mobility. Hard searches much deeper with an evaluation of mobility, corners, edge stability and parity, and solves the ending exactly in the last ten moves or so. Insane uses its own opening book, searches as deep as it can in about two seconds, and plays the final 12 to 14 moves perfectly, which means it never misses a winning ending.

The computer thinks in a background thread so the board stays smooth, and the Hint button asks the Hard engine for its move in your position. Your wins, losses and current win streak are kept for each level.

Play Reversi online with a friend or another player

Choose Online to play Reversi against a real person on another phone, tablet or computer. Quick match pairs you with the next player who is ready, and Invite a friend gives you a link or an 8-letter code to send; the game starts the moment they open it. No account is needed, and a coin toss decides who plays Black.

Every move is checked on our server with the same rules as the game itself, and passes are made automatically, so nobody can move out of turn. If your connection drops the game reconnects by itself, and if your opponent leaves for a minute you can claim the win. After a game, either player can ask for a rematch with colours swapped. Sign in with a free account and your online wins count on the Reversi leaderboard.

Reversi strategy: corners, mobility and parity

Beginners count discs; experienced players count moves. In the opening and middlegame, aim to keep your discs compact and in the centre, flip as few as you need, and make moves that leave your opponent with only poor choices. Edges and corners decide the endgame: a corner anchors whole lines of stable discs that can never be flipped again.

In the last dozen moves the board breaks into small empty regions. Moving into a region with an odd number of empty squares usually lets you take its last square, so count regions and keep the final move for yourself. Insane plays this phase perfectly, which makes it a good teacher: replay a lost game from the move list and see where the corners changed hands.

A short history of Reversi

Reversi was invented in England in the 1880s, when two London game makers each published their own version of a board game played by flipping two-coloured counters. It became a popular parlour game in Britain and Germany. The modern way of starting, with four discs set diagonally in the centre and Black to move, became the standard in the twentieth century and is the one used here. The game itself is in the public domain; Rocket Reversi's engine, artwork and sounds are our own.

Controls, phones and keyboard play

Rocket Reversi works with touch, a mouse or a keyboard. Tap a glowing dot to play there. With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move around the board and Enter or Space to place a disc. The sun and moon button switches between the dark and light board, and the speaker button turns the sounds on or off. Full screen gives the board as much room as your screen allows, on a phone in portrait or landscape.

Rocket Reversi FAQ