Filler — Strategy

The match: one board twice

Rated variants are played as a match of two games on one board with swapped corners. That changes the arithmetic.

Every cell counts

At 1–1 the match is decided by the sum of cells over both games. When losing a game, keep collecting cells: a difference of a few cells in the second game can decide the whole match. For the same reason it does not pay to concede early — a conceded game counts as it stood at the moment of conceding.

The second game is from the opponent's corner

In the second game you start from the corner where the opponent just played, on the same board. Remember what worked for them and where they got stuck. If in the first game the opponent won thanks to a lucky patch near their corner, that patch is now yours.

The first move

On a small board the player who starts gets a noticeable edge; on big boards it is smaller. The match evens it out: each player moves first once. If you lost the first game with the opponent starting, don't draw conclusions yet: in the second you have the move.

Time for the whole match

The clock runs for the match, not the game. Don't spend your budget on obvious moves in the first game — in the second you may need it for counting at the end.