Othello / Reversi - Wooden Strategy Game

History: The Othello (also known as "Reversi") game was independently invented in the 1880's by two Englishmen, Lewis Waterman and John W. Mollett, each accusing the other of stealing his idea.

The game is still very popular, especially in Japan.

Abstract: An exciting game where Black and White (or any combination of two colors) alternate putting pegs on vacant squares from an initial opening position.

Instructions: The goal is to trap your opponents pieces between your own and take possession (by turning your opponent's trapped pegs over to change their colors to yours, as all pegs have one of each color on each of their end). 

Initially the board is empty except for the central square (has room for 4 pegs to start with) where each player places two of his pegs inside that center square.

On his turn, a player places a peg of his color in any of the vacant holes, where the goal is to capture one or more of his opponents pegs. The captured peg(s) are replaced by those of the capturing player's color (just turn the pegs over as all pegs are colored on both ends).

Basic rules:

 Each player on his turn must capture at least one opponent peg. If he cannot do that, he will lose one turn.

 The player can capture whole peg line as long as there are no vacant squares between the pegs.

 The capture can be horizontally, vertically, diagonally or combination of one or more of the mentioned directions.

 Ownership can change many times in the course of a game but eventually one player will dominate.

The winner is the player with the most occupied squares on the board at game end, and the game is over when the board is filled with all pegs, or when neither player can capture.

Comes complete with a wooden box and lid for safe keeping the pieces.