Tips churn

The pivotal moment of Churn is when a player makes a new largest group.

There are two ways this can happen: EXPANDING a group by adding one stone to it, or CONNECTING two existing groups by adding a stone between them.

CONNECTING is much stronger, since it makes a much larger group, but EXPANDING is required by the rules if possible, since you're obligated to make the smallest possible group each turn.

So here are two heuristics for playing Churn:

1. Try to make sure you DON'T have legal expansions, forcing to you CONNECT

2. Try to make sure your opponent DOES have legal expansions, forcing them to EXPAND.