Reversi commercial success. The name was selected by Hasegawa as a reference to the Shakespearean play "Othello, the Moor of Venice", referring to the conflict between the Moor Othello and Iago, and more controversially, to the unfolding drama between Othello, who is black, and Desdemona, who is white. The green color of the board is inspired by the image of the general Othello, valiantly leading his battle in a green field. It can also be likened to a jealousy competition (jealousy being the central theme in Shakespeare's play, which popularized the term "green-eyed monster"), since players engulf the pieces of the
Shakespeare Fellowship 74-4 vote for unification, the new "Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship" was created later in the year. John Hamill was appointed president of the merged organisation. The Shakespeare Fellowship published "Brief Chronicles", an annual journal. As the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship it publishes both "The Oxfordian" and "Brief Chronicles". The editor-in-chief, Roger Stritmatter, and the managing editor, Gary Goldstein, describe the latter journal as "a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal of Shakespearean authorship studies." It was established in 2009 and is included in the MLA International Bibliography and World Shakespeare Bibliography databases. The journal's name refers to a quotation from "Hamlet" in which Hamlet tells