Notation
The game of Othello takes place on a board with 64 squares. We refer to these squares by a coordinate system: the rows are numbered from top to bottom by 1 to 8; the columns are indicated from left to right by 'a' to 'h'.
The square at the top left is referred to as a1, the one immediately to its right as b1, and so on.
Certain types of squares have been given, for reasons of convenience, a special name. One speaks of the corners (a1, h8, a8, and h8), the X-squares, which are those squares diagonally adjacent to a corner, and of the C-squares, which are the other squares adjacent to a corner. The compass directions are often used to refer to a region of the Othello board. For example, the squares near the a1 corner make up the "north-west" region while row 8 is referred to as the "south edge".
It is not necessary, in reading this booklet, to know how to record a game. However we give the process in case you would like to read a game analysis or record your own games. A game is recorded in a diagram giving the number and location of each move.
The diagram above represents the game Penloup-Juhem game from the 1992 World Championships. The first player listed is black, here Penloup. The '1' on f5 indicates that the first move was played on this square; then white responded with d6, followed by c3 d3 c4 ...