American Othello

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I bet Cheney and Rover are really good at playing Othello, or would be.

The board game Othello is also known as Reversi (the non-trademarked name). It is probably my favorite game.

As the slogan goes, it takes "a minute to learn, a lifetime to master".

It's played with chips that are white on one side, black on the other, and if you flank them with your color you can flip them. The trick is to control the "walls" of the board, because no one can get behind you to flip them, and ultimately to control the corners because no one can flip those.

Every chip has to be placed next to another chip, so you can't just place them out arbitrarily.

To that end, you avoid going into the "postage stamp" of four squares around the corner because if you can avoid that, you provide no way for your opponent to get to the corner. If they can't get to the corner, they can't control the wall. If they can't control the wall, they can't control the center.



If you get a corner, though, you immediately start building up the sides, making an impenetrable wall.

Cheney and Rove started by instituting an executive secrecy law and replacing the national archivist. Already, they're playing to the corners.

Then, they start building up the walls, stacking the justice department with their own people.

They don't control the whole board, so they avoid the "postage stamp" corners of Harriet Miers and subpoenas. Give in to those, and the opponent can easily jump to the corner and start controlling the board. So they control the board by controlling the places where the opponent has left to move.

If you don't play Othello/Reversi, this probably makes no sense at all, but if you do, it's a perfect fit.

If only lives and the futures of nations weren't at stake when they play.