For Othello, picking the positionally best square (corners very good, adjacent to corners very bad, 2 squares from corner good, etc.) beats lookahead, likely because having unflippable pieces in good positions leads to large swings in score in the endgame that a short lookahead won't see.
I play almost purely positionally with no conscious lookahead and I beat it soundly every time, playing as both black and white, frequently with the AI having to pass because it had no legal moves.
A "don't yield a corner" heuristic to never move in the three squares around a corner unless there are no other legal moves would likely significantly strengthen its play.
That’s interesting, thanks. Can I read up somewhere about these positional principles? It’s not immediately obvious to me why positions adjacent to the corner are so poor.
EDIT: ah, I guess it’s because it gives the corner to your opponent.
I play almost purely positionally with no conscious lookahead and I beat it soundly every time, playing as both black and white, frequently with the AI having to pass because it had no legal moves.
A "don't yield a corner" heuristic to never move in the three squares around a corner unless there are no other legal moves would likely significantly strengthen its play.