Lest you we befuddle with a surfeit of theory and lore, how about a sample game of go with you, dear reader, taking Black -- which always goes first -- playing against White?
Alternately one by one, we both start out by placing stones a few intersections from the corners, since it is easiest to build strongholds with the outer borders of the grid providing natural walls to cover our rears (as it were).
Each of us claims two corners this way.