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  • Lesson 6 of 7
  • Strategy
  • 2 min

Frontier Discs and Quiet Moves in Othello

Mobility asks how many moves your opponent has. This lesson shows where those moves come from, and the kind of move that keeps them few.

Step 1 of 3

  1. Frontier discs

    A frontier disc is a disc next to at least one empty square. Every move has to go next to an opponent's disc, so your frontier discs are where your opponent can play. Count them here: White has 16 frontier discs, and Black has 5. That is why Black has ten moves, and why White, if it were White's turn, would have only the three starred ones.

  2. A quiet move

    The move that flips the most here is d7, five discs. Now look at e3: it flips only e4, and it fills the last empty square beside e4.

    Your move

    Make the quietest move: the one that leaves you the fewest frontier discs.

  3. Which move is quietest?

    Which of these moves leaves you the fewest frontier discs?

    Question

What you learned

  • A frontier disc touches an empty square, and your opponent's moves are all next to your frontier discs.
  • A quiet move flips few discs, ideally ones that are already surrounded.
  • Fewer frontier discs means fewer moves for your opponent.

In this course

Unit 1The rules

  1. Othello Rules: Place, Outflank and Flip

Unit 2Strategy

  1. Othello Corners: Why They Can Never Be Flipped
  2. X-Squares and C-Squares in Othello
  3. Mobility in Othello: Leave Your Opponent Few Moves
  4. Edges in Othello: Discs That Are Hard to Flip
  5. Frontier Discs and Quiet Moves in Othello
  6. Parity in the Othello Endgame: Get the Last Move

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