The goal of the game is to own the most board locations at the end
of the game. One way to approach reaching this goal is to try and secure
board locations that can't be recaptured by your opponent. Through analysis
of the game and this approach in mind, one can verify that the idea of
capturing key board locations is fundamental to winning. Below, I will
demonstrate these locations and how they become a key factor in the winning
of the game:
Ownership of a corner is irreversible: meaning that an oppenent
can't retake it once you own it and vice versa.
Owning two adjacent corners means that it will be very likely
that you will also own the connecting side. Squares under the influence
of the corners are marked by the red X's in the following image:
Furthermore, owning any 3 corners creates the strong likelihood
of owning 2 adjacent sides. As demonstrated below:
Those sides, once owned, can't be recaptured by an opponent.
Yet most importantly, owning 2 adjacent sides yields the possibility to
create many more irreversible pieces. This is done by repeating the same
pattern described above:
Of course, this is only really effective if all the pieces on
those two sides are owned by you. Regardless, the principle game strategy
has now been introduced.
