Learn

Step {number}: Learn to trace a loop

Put one finger on a piece and follow its circuit all the way round, saying out loud what it would meet. Do that for a few pieces at the start of a game and the board stops looking like a grid and starts looking like eight tracks. Until that happens you will keep losing pieces to captures you never saw coming.

Step {number}: An empty track is a loaded gun

A capture needs every point along the way to be empty, which means your own pieces are your best defence: one piece parked on a circuit shuts down every capture that would have used that stretch of it.

Equally, clearing your own piece off a track can open a capture for your opponent that did not exist a moment ago. Before every quiet move, check what you are unblocking.

Step {number}: The corner points are safe

The four corner points of the board sit on no circuit at all. A piece there can never be captured, and can never capture. That makes them useful for parking a piece you cannot afford to lose, and useless for anything else.