Othello Lesson 2 - A minute to learn a life time to master

[uioxk]

amazing video.. thank you

[littlteapot]

These are great. Would you ever consider doing a video about going for edges, like when to and not to do it, and how much of an investment to make in controlling the edge/denying your opponent from controlling it.

[Othellolessons]

@littlteapot Thanks! What you've hit on there is in my opinion the hardest part of the game. Ideally if I could find the time I would finish off the opening theory and then jump to the endgame I think its easier and more important to cover that off next. Edge play is part of the mid-game and last thing I would cover. So a long way off. Sorry! To show how difficlut it is, heres something i started ages ago and never finished othello.dk/book/index.php/Edge­_Configuration

[tatomuck18]

Is it ever good to intentionally give your opponent a corner EARLY in the game? I played some games where opponents would do some strange things and take an X square on purpose and right after I take the corner my opponent would immediatly run away from it so I cant build around it and somehow win later in the game.

[Othellolessons]

@tatomuck18

The strategy ive hinted at so far is slightly flawed. it implies that you should take a corner because its always good. This is actually wrong. It sounds like your opponent might be trying to even the game up (sorry). The simple rule is, if your opponent gives you a corner, dont take it. its a free move that can be taken any time. Take a corner on your terms and ensure that by taking it you are still in control of the game

[davidnalba]

Yeah you are right. Lesson 6 board is beautiful.

And in tournaments chess clocks are used?. Because i saw a "fide" logo in yours.

PD: are you planning to do more videos?

[Othellolessons]

@davidnalba

Yes on both accounts ;)

[Zaphenath4]

@Othellolessons Hi I'm a beginner. I don't see how that is 4 moves at 7:31 Are you refering to the number of pieces flipped?

[Othellolessons]

@Zaphenath4

Nope, I am counting the number of possible options that are available. but the move that gets played removes all those options was the point i was trying to make.

[davidnalba]

Hi David,

is a very nice board the one you use for the videos. The black extremes, of what material is made, wood, plastic...?. Thanks.

[Othellolessons]

@davidnalba

Hi David, its plastic. Those boards are given out to all new players who attend their first world championship and are the tournament standard. The board i use in lesson 6 is much nicer and is worth about £180. :)

[tatomuck18]

If you dont take enough peices in the beginning, you could easily be wiped out with nothing left.

[Luducras1]

i feel like a noob, ive been playing the maximise way against the CPU on my itouch and always losing against hard lol

[senichikun]

This might have been just asked, but I was wondering. I always lose with the 'take as many pieces' strategy against a hard mode CPU online. I was thinking about coming up with a unique winning strategy, but I've never played a game of Othello with anyone outside of my friends or family. I can't say I'm an expert at all, and I can't say they are either. So the point of the question is, would you say Othello is more of a time consuming game as something like a professional game of chess?

[Othellolessons]

This is hard to answer, because as with draughts below i dont have any concept of how much effort is required to learn chess. Id be of the opinion though that if you really wanted to you could get playing Othello at a fair level with some intensive practise in about 3 months.

[Othellolessons]

However if you go down this route then i think you miss out on some understanding because typically you will have to memorise a few openings and stick to them and never deviate. Meaning that you never really understand opening strategy properly.

[Othellolessons]

I put a link to a programme called Wzebra in the info section. This is what top players use to practise.

Also to playok where you can find others to play.

Cheers

Davd.

[senichikun]

Have you ever messed around with the Othello built in on vista? I tried messing around with different techniques such as minimizing and it seems to know it's way around everything, but it's maximizing. It's knocked me into an x spot plenty of times.

[Othellolessons]

Can't say i have. I don't have an othello game automatically included with vista. Is it something you downloaded? where from?

[senichikun]

It took me a while to find, but I remembered it being on my friend's computer once, so I kept searching. If you go to the start menu then the search at the bottom type 'sidebar' and the first reult you should get is windows sidebar. Click that then on the right side of the desktop you'll see it. At the top of the bar there's a +. Click it and you'll see Reversi. Or you might. I have no clue if this comes with all vistas.

[tatomuck18]

how did you get othello on vista? I want it!

[senichikun]

@tatomuck18 Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Windows Sidebar Properties -> Check the "Start Sidebar when Windows starts" box -> OK button -> Restart computer -> When computer starts up there should be a black box on the right of the screen. Press to + on the top of the box -> Double Click Reversi -> enjoy

[Othellolessons]

@tatomuck18

Hi again Tato,

Its true there is a possibility that if your not careful you could get wiped out. but in fact it actually quite unlikely that you will as long as your sensible.

If your locking your pieces in the middle of the 'bunch' as the next videos start to explain then its hard for your opponent to start taking all of them, if that's their aim. Which will fail them in the long run .

[davidnalba]

Hi David.

Do you think that othello has more strategy depth than international draughts?.

[Othellolessons]

Hi David,

to be honest i don't know too much about international draughts.

I know that Othello and draughts have both been partially solved. That is perfect play has been found on smaller boards. but not on the 8x8 board of Othello and the 10x10 board of draughts it remains unsolved.

[Othellolessons]

One thing I will say is that draughts does have the potential to go on forever if a stalemate position arises or if players dot understand how to win. So the game has the possibility to have far more combinations than Othello which is only ever going to have a maximum of 60 moves.

I think Othello has more combinations and permutations however within 60 moves, though I cant prove this.

[Othellolessons]

As for strategy itself. I cant possibly comment and don't know anyone that plays both games, that I can ask.

do you have any opnion?

[davidnalba]

Thanks for answering. Im a reversi player (bad player).

I think the strategy complexity of othello is higher than checkers 8x8 but im not sure about international draughts, that has a bigger board and more rules.

If you google "game complexity", there is an article in wikipedia that explains this, but i didnt understand it very well (im a spanish speaker).

Maybe you can interpretate it.

Thanks a lot.

[spinedoc4U]

Thx for posting. These videos will prove to be more effective as you get more into the game.

(For the experienced player looking to advance his/her game).

Thx again David

Giovanni/OCning

[lidonn]

Very nice video.I'm waiting to see some advanced techniques in the future videos. :)

[Othellolessons]

Thanks!! Please point new players you come across in this direction :)

Advanced stuff will come... but have to set the building blocks first.