Isolation Strategy: 5 Tips

Isolation is about mobility and partition. Rules first? See how to play.

1. Remove where it bites

The strongest removal is almost always a square the enemy pawn could step to next. Take away its best exit, not a random corner.

2. Stay in open ground

Keep your pawn where it has many neighbours left. A pawn on the edge has at most five steps; in a corner, three.

3. Build the wall

Think of removed squares as a wall. Shape it so that when the board splits, your pawn is in the larger region. Diagonal steps slip through single gaps, so a wall must be solid.

4. Count once split

When the pawns can no longer reach each other, the game is a pure count: whoever has more squares to walk through wins. Walk a path that visits every square of your region.

5. Tempo matters

If the regions are equal, the player who moves next loses. Before closing the wall, check who will be to move once it shuts.

The hard computer searches two plies on the open board and three once it shrinks, over steps and nearby removals, scoring mobility and reachable area; normal looks one move ahead; easy plays at random.

Last updated 2026-10-21