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Reversi Sudoku

Reversi Sudoku

Earlier today, at my grandson Keegan’s 1st Birthday Party, I talked with a friend of mine (and another Keegan Grandparent) who sells books. Old books. He calls it: Lou Manrique — Antiquarian Bookseller. He talked about his recent passion for playing Reversi online with folks worldwide (but one at a time). Wikipedia goes into great detail about Reversi.

A long time back, I played the same game under the name Othello, something the Japanese trademarked back in the early 1970s. But in practice, Reversi and Othello are synonymous. Interestingly, There is a World Othello Federation.

Lou got me to thinking about how I could combine Reversi and Sudoku. Out of that comes this cartoon today. I imagine that you can solve the sudoku puzzle, but as you add a number to the board, you now also have to choose a black or white number. As you complete the puzzle, the board gets more fully filled in, perhaps by alternating black or white pieces.

Once the puzzle is solved, Reversi rules take effect.

A legal move in reversi is one which will complete linear envelopment at least one opponent’s disc and convert the disk(s) to your initial color. Play passes to your opponent if you have no legal moves. No legal moves for both players means the game ends and your territory extent is counted.

Now starting from the interior, it is necessary to flip linearly enveloped opposite colored numbers to your initial color (black). You alternate flipping to black, then to white, until there are no more flips possible. Then notice which color is more popular. It’s probably much better with two people playing.

To (re)freshen your skills playing Reversi, there is a computer Applet which you can play: See Reversi Java Applet By Thomas Wolf.

Consider solving this Sudoku Puzzle variant as bait for getting someone to help you finish the Reversi portion.

There is also a Reversi variation you can play in this! It’s called Reversed Reversi, where the goal is to minimize territory (i.e. lose). Just let your opponent know your objective, so that the game is more interesting.