Select Begin Game on the cover, then open Game Setup. Choose Human vs Human, Human vs AI, or AI vs AI. Human vs AI adds color, difficulty, and personality choices. AI vs AI adds separate difficulty choices and playback speed.
Black moves first. A legal move places a disc so that one or more opposing discs lie in a straight horizontal, vertical, or diagonal line between the new disc and another disc of your color. Every enclosed disc flips. If a player has no legal move, that turn passes automatically. The game ends when neither player can move; the larger disc count wins.
Undo and Redo step through play. Human vs AI undo returns to the previous human turn.Hint focuses the strongest evaluated legal move.Heat Map displays broad positional values for empty squares.Select Single Game or Best of 3, 5, or 7. A best-of series continues through draws until one side reaches the required number of wins. Optional clocks provide 3, 5, 10, or 15 minutes per side. AI vs AI Pause freezes the active clock.
Save stores the current game locally in the browser and Load restores it. Export downloads a validated JSON save file; Import loads a compatible Othello save. Version 1.4.5 also restores tournament format, clock selection, clock time, move history, and review state safely.
Analyze ranks candidate moves and displays evaluation details. The Training Center contains strategy puzzles, exact endgame exercises, and an Opening Explorer. The Position Editor creates custom boards for analysis or play. After a completed game, Analyze Game reports accuracy, mistakes, and coaching explanations.
Move History becomes reviewable after the game. Use first, previous, play, next, and last controls to inspect each position. Human vs AI results and training progress are stored locally. Export Record creates a readable text record of the completed game.
All controls are keyboard accessible. Dialogs keep keyboard focus inside the active window and return focus when closed. Reduced-motion preferences suppress disc and interface animation.