Puzzle Time - Lu and Fin's checkerboard strategy game

[jon-nyc]

Lu and Fin play a game where they alternately place a checker on an unoccupied square of an initially empty eight-by-eight checkerboard.

The rule is that after Lu places his initial checker, every new checker must be (orthogonally) adjacent to the most recently placed checker. The players are in effect constructing a path of checkers. The last player to make a legal move wins the game.

For illustration, here's an example game where Lu beats Fin:

Your mission: Find a winning strategy for Fin.

(note: Having Fin throw Lu's checkers off the board or put one in in his mouth doesn't count!)

[Klaus]

That puzzle sounds very familiar to me. Didn't we already discuss it in the past? I vaguely recall the solution. It was pretty simple.

[Klaus]

Ah, so that's why the puzzle looked so familiar:

https://nodebb.the-new-coffee-room.club/topic/2923/puzzle-time-but-not-so-hard?_=1611590965367

[jon-nyc]

Well I guess you and I know the answer.

Let’s see if anyone else wants to play.

[taiwan_girl]

I have played a game like this in real life. Lol

[LuFins Dad]

Let me look up what "orthogonally" means and I will begin working on it.

[jon-nyc]

Small hint:

The strategy would work even if there were no constraints on where Lu placed his pieces. In other words, even if he could place his checker on any open square on the board, but Fin had to keep to the adjacent squares, Fin still has a winning strategy.

[jon-nyc]

Major hint now.

Imagine the board broken up (figuratively) into little 2x1 segments like this: