原文 part1：
Why do I sometimes see “Othello” called “Reversi”?
By Ben Seeley
Here’s the long answer: Othello and Reversi are not actually the same game, but Othello has been called Reversi so often that people often think they are the same game (and some game sites, etc., take advantage of that confusion to rip off Othello by calling it "Reversi", which only perpetuates the confusion).
*Real* Reversi is no longer played (as far as I've ever seen). Real Reversi pre-dates Othello, historically, and most expert game players who would investigate the difference would conclude it is an interesting but inferior game. I will explain the differences, and show where the confusion came from.
Real Reversi dates back to the 1880s, was briefly a fad in England (it was played in other countries as well), then appears to have mostly died out shortly thereafter.
大致理解一下：
我们能看到的Othello经常会被人认为是跟Reversi一样的游戏，还有很多人用Reversi去称呼或指代Othello，就像我们定义黑白棋又叫Reversi一样。
Ben Seeley在文中指出了几点根本性的区别，当然也有一些他自己的观点。
首先，不能否认的是，Reversi出现在19世纪80年代的英国，短暂地流行过一阵子，然后就没有然后了。

原文 Part2：
1. In Reversi as it was originally played, the starting configuration was not predetermined, like it is in Othello. Players would take turns setting down the first four pieces in the center of the board. Because of this, either player could force the “parallel” starting configuration (White White Black Black), rather than the predetermined Othello starting configuration (White Black Black White).
Compared to the Othello starting configuration, the "parallel" starting configuration does not offer a wide range of interesting lines of play. Also, parallel starting configuration may be a White win with perfect play. The Othello starting configuration is almost certainly a draw with perfect play, and there are many draw lines to choose from.
Summary of the problem with parallel opening configuration: either player could force a Reversi game to become more boring if they wished, and White could possibly force a winning position from the start, which is less fun for Black.
大致理解第二下：
第一点的区别，主要是Reversi不像Othello一样有提前设置好的环节。Reversi需要玩家花费行动轮次（turn）去放置棋子，然后就会出现玩家被迫平行开局。这样的设置会出现白棋的大胜率，这也会让黑棋玩家觉得很无趣。Ben认为，Othello的开局设置几乎是平衡的，并且会有很多种线路的选择。

原文 part3：
2. In Reversi as it was originally played, the game was over as soon as either player could not make a move. In Othello, the player without a move simply passes, and the other player makes as many moves as needed before the first player can make a move again. The game is only over once neither player can make a move.
This “no passing” rule in Reversi makes the game radically different and basically screws up normal Othello strategy.
大致理解第三下：
第二点区别，是在于Reversi的游戏规则中，关于结束游戏的条件。其中有一种情况是，双方任何一个人没有行动力了就结束游戏。而Othello会有Pass的行动让对方棋手继续落子。
Ben认为，Reversi的规则会让整个游戏变得很“拧巴”，会失去一些策略性。

举个简单的例子，指南上经典的一道题。如果是按照Reversi的规则，白棋无子可下，就会结束游戏，然后数子，白棋胜。
而在Othello的规则里，白棋无子可下，黑棋可以一直连下至64:0而获胜。这两种结果天差地别。

原文 part:4：
3. Aesthetic differences: Othello is always is played on a green board with black and white discs. Reversi does not have predetermined disc colors. You can find discs in a lot of colours, mostly blue, red, or green. Reversi boards are in different colors and styles. Before 1975, Reversi never had a green board.
You can see many Othello boards, and some ancient Reversi boards, at the Othello Museum.
大致理解第四下：
这是关于游戏的设计审美。Othello从设计最初就是在绿色的棋盘上进行的，并且使用黑白棋子（文中用的disc表示棋子），但Reversi的没有固定的配色。Reversi的棋子颜色有很多种，但在1975年之前，从来没有出现过绿色棋盘。
Ben还指出，在Othello博物馆里能看到很多Othello和Reversi的棋盘。
以下是Ben Seeley在文中使用的图片

根据这张图片，我对Reversi棋盘做了一下劣质的复原。

其实简单看起来，行棋的线路跟Othello也是相同的，八个方向都可以吃子。
说实话，我更喜欢Reversi的棋盘，感觉像是某种仪式的感觉

原文 part5：
Now, where does Othello come in?
Othello was invented in Japan in the 1960s. Reversi does not appear to have ever been played in Japan. Given how simple and elegant the rules of Othello are, it would be easy to spontaneously invent Othello, having never heard of Reversi before. Either way, Othello is a better game than Reversi, which is part of why Othello became popular (and stayed popular) instead of falling out of popularity like Reversi had done.
Unfortunately, because the games look similar and have similar rules, and “Othello” is a trademark and “Reversi” is not, many board game sellers, websites, software makers, etc., wanted to piggy back on the popularity of Othello by calling their game “Reversi”. Quite aggravatingly, they never use the rules of real Reversi (as far as we've ever seen).
Instead, they mirror the rules and design of Othello, by making irrelevant tweaks like turning the starting configuration 90 degrees, or having White start play instead of Black, or simply changing the colors of the discs or squares. These differences make literally zero difference to the play of the game- every position is what is known in game theory terms as a "transposition" of the same Othello position, i.e. it mirrors the Othello position.
大致理解第五下：
Ben认为，Othello就是在20世纪60年代在日本发明出来的（至于是不是长谷川五郎就不得而知了），而很确定的是Reversi根本没有在日本出现过。由于Othello的规则很简单，因此发明这个游戏规则似乎不需要借鉴Reversi。再者，之前说到Othello的规则比Reversi更友好，这也是Othello能风靡的原因之一。
但是，由于两者确实很像，因此很多地方都用Reversi称呼黑白棋。结果，那些叫做Reversi的游戏确从来没有使用Reversi的规则。
然后，Reversi的生产厂家在Othello的规则和设计上做了很多无谓的改变，比方说把初始设置转90°，让白棋先下，或者是改变一下棋盘和棋子的颜色等等。这些改变几乎没有对Othello的游戏产生真正的影响，相反更加体现了Othello游戏的核心地位。

原文part 6：
And sometimes, those who call their game "Reversi" don't make any changes at all to the rules or aesthetics, and instead make a perfect copy of Othello, in order to fully exploit the hard work the people in the Othello community have done to promote the game of Othello. They know that paying for an Othello license would cut into their profits, and because so many people think they are the same game, they could get Othello customers (people saying “hey, that looks like Othello”) even though they called it Reversi.
This is bad for the players. Also, when a player never knows the game as Othello, and only knows it as "Reversi", it actually limits how much fun the player could be having.
If those people playing "Reversi" realized they are actually playing Othello, they could begin to join Othello tournaments (there are no "Reversi" tournaments), read Othello articles online, and join the online and offline Othello community and make great new friends. Instead, many "Reversi" players never get to join the Othello community, and the Othello community does not get to have the pleasure of making friends with the "Reversi" players. This repeated misuse of the name "Reversi" reduces everyone's enjoyment of the great game and community of Othello.
That is the long story of the differences between Othello and Reversi/"Reversi". If you have any further information or corrections to add to this article, please email ben dot seeley at gmail dot com. Thank you for reading!
大致理解第六下：
Ben开始“痛斥”Reversi带来的不利： Reversi从认知上混淆了Othello，让很多人不知道自己玩的是Othello（这个似乎在国内看不到。国内直接连Reversi都不知道，更别说分清楚Reversi和Othello了）

搬运完成，然后基本的浓缩了一下，希望不会给大家带来阅读理解上的误导和麻烦。
就因为这篇文章，我去询问了宋岩。得到一个结论，关于黑白棋，Othello是唯一的英文名。黑白棋、奥赛罗是唯二的中文名。
再加上，黑白棋、Othello都是注册商标，仅只有栢龙拿到了授权。这就是为什么网上所有的黑白棋具除栢龙之外，清一色不用Othello的原因。
至于现在网上在卖的各种Reversi游戏和拿着蓝色棋盘直播下棋的主播，估计给他们科普也没啥用，毕竟人家的产品便宜，国人也不太在乎这个游戏叫什么名字、是否正版或者侵权啥的。不过，当我们在推广普及黑白棋的时候，还是用Othello或者黑白棋这个名字去推正品吧。
话说回来，网上关于黑白棋的介绍，是不是也要考虑把这个“又叫什么什么”的给改了去？

最早是叫reversi，可以理解为翻转棋。后来，长谷川进行了改良，并且注册了商标othello。你可以把他们看做是同样的东西。

吕老师和宋老师西方人平时口语估计还是说reversi（反棋），如生活中：嘿，哥们，下反棋吗。要是说：哥们，下奥赛罗棋吗，估计对方还是比较懵的。