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Review title: Beginners would do well to avoid it...
Product review: Othello, devised by Hasegawa-san in the 1970s, is an improved version of the century-old English game, reversi. [What is called reversi on-line is almost always Othello rather than reversi].This book was written soon after Othello was devised, before anyone understood much about the game. Unfortunately it shows, and beginners would do well to avoid it - at least as a source of ideas on strategy and tactics - because it will lead them down a deceptively appealing blind alley.Because of its many diagrams, however, it may be of use to those who know enough to recognise where it goes wrong but otherwise I recommend it for historical interest only.Better resources can be found free on the Web, in the form of strategy guides, illustrative applets and programs that can beat even the best humans. A printed alternative is Othello: Brief & Basic by Ted Landau, which is old but still excellent (as far as it goes).
