Reversi Ravensburger
Germany 1978, brand Ravensburger, material magnetic plastic, cm 11x15x1
This is a special magnetic and travel size version of the famous Reversi game, produced by Ravensburger in 1978.
Game takes place between 2 players, on a 8x8 board of 64 squares.
There are 64 magnetic pieces, objective: have more pieces of your color at the end of the game.
Reversi is a game that was invented in England circa 1880.
There are at least two men who claim to have invented the game, Lewis Waterman and James Mollett, but it is unclear as to who copied who, although James Mollett did publish a very similar game ten years earlier. Reversi began to be marketed in 1888 by Jaques and Sons of London, and quickly grew in popularity at the end of the 19th century.
In 1893, the German publisher Ravensburger started producing the game.
The modern rule set used on the international tournament stage originated in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan in the 1970s: the Japanese game company Tsukuda Original registered the game under the trademark name Othello. This was clearly a reference to the Shakespearean play The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, which stars the Venetian general Othello, who is black, and his beautiful wife Desdemona, who is white.
Since the rebranding, Reversi has grown in popularity around the world, perhaps most of all in Japan. In fact, there have even been annual Reversi World Championships, held every year since 1977, with Japan being one of the most decorated countries in both the individual and team rounds (Chen).
Goro Hasegawa, who wrote How to win at Othello, popularized the game in Japan in 1975.
Historical images credit: www.ffothello.org/othello/histoireBO-02-0039 - available