A corner is the most powerful starting position in a 2D territory race as long as you are faster than your opponent.
Speed advantages in territorial expansion reverse the traditional value of being in the center of the map. Faster players can use the corner to wall off their competitors and claim the majority of the space for themselves. Most strategists assume that starting in the middle provides the best access to all resources and directions. This geometric rule proves that being far from the goal is a massive advantage if you can move quickly enough to block others. In the race for land or market share, the most isolated position can become the ultimate stronghold.
Frontier Games: Sequential Territorial Competition in Two Dimensions
SSRN · 6698258
On a line, speed buys distance. On a grid, speed can buy exclusion. Two players expand territories by claiming adjacent cells at fixed rates. Under equal speed, each cell goes to the closer player in equilibrium. Central starts dominate, and the partition is the Manhattan Voronoi tessellation on any finite connected graph. Under unequal speed, the fast player can build a wall of cells that cuts the opponent off from part of the board. Once the wall closes, the enclosed cells are uncontested. Thi