Page "Reversi" Paragraph 25

It is generally the case that for relatively inexperienced players the opening ( early ) part of a game of Reversi is not something that is very easy to make sense of.

A general — and somewhat, but not entirely, meaningless — rule of thumb on the opening is that a good opening is one that leads to a good middlegame.

By and large, good moves in the very earliest stages are determined by whether there is a refutation to a move only and few other truly general considerations aside from what exactly constitutes a refutation.

The first move ( by dark ) is no choice at all other than for the purpose of the player's possible sense of ideal visualization.

The first move by light gives three choices, and, in fact, it is generally accepted at the highest level that one of these actually may be successfully refuted, that being what is known as the Parallel opening.

The other two choices by light are called the Diagonal opening and the Perpendicular opening, and these three in the order mentioned with f5 as dark's first move ( See discussion on notation above ) are f4, f6 and d6.

As this sub-topic is generally broad and complex — at high levels of play it is routine for ten or more moves to be rattled off from rote memorization by both players, travelling down well-worn paths, and there is a common naming system for diverse early-game move choices — it is probably best to leave expansion of this topic to a separate article specifically dedicated to the issue or to say no more.