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I am by no way a good player at this game, but I am trying to improve, and this game I played recently at Yucata against my friend George helped me a lot in this matter. If you are a beginner like me, I hope that you could understand some of the basics of the underlying strategies of Ponte del diavolo by replaying this game.
White: me. Black: George.
1.g8+c5 e5+g5
2.c7+e8 d7+d8
3.c6+e6 d5+f7
4.e7+e9 Bd5-d7
I have played the opening very weakly, and I already have big problems to connect my islands, while my opponent has already build a bridge, taken possession of the centre, with threats to expand his islands... in short: this is probably already a hopeless game for me!
5.g4+c9 f5+f9
6.e6+i6 Bf5-f6
7.Be8-g8 g7+h8
My situation is still critical: I cannot do anything against the expension of the d7+d8 island, and if I play I7+I8 to destroy the f8g8h8 island, this will prevent me from connecting my own islands ... Still, I find something to try to sail upon trouble waters ( "like a bridge over trouble waters...")
8.i7-h9 h8+c8
9.i9+a9 d9+j9
10.Bi9-i7
Now I have some hope: I will play at h6 and g9 later to connect three islands. I’m still the underdog , though, because of the devastating power of the d5e5f5g5 island. Note that there is a difference between the h6 and g9 moves: there’s nothing my opponent can do to stop me from playing h6, so I will only play this at the very end of the game, but by playing f10, George can threaten to cut down my island with a f10+h8 bridge.
10. J10+g10
I believe that this is a weak move: as I cannot play at J10 or g10 (or I would lost an island), my opponent has plenty of time to play there. It would have been stronger to try an expansion in the third row right now.Nevertherless, my position is so bad that George can safely afford some mistakes.
11.Bi6-g4 e3+c3
Just a move too late: my bridge now gives me an opportunity to have an edge at the lower left corner.
12.d3+g9
This stops my opponent’s threat to play at f10.
12 Bf5-e3
13.e2+j4 f3+g3
14.h4+h2 g2+i4
15.h3+d1 i3+j7
My opponent has achieved his goal to build a pair of connected islands in the upper corner of the board, but this has cost him several tempos and I’m still breathing (though with difficulty)!
16.Bc5-d3 e1+b3
17.d2+b7 a8+j5
18. Bc7-a9
The priority is to stop the expansion of the already 4 islands connected.
18. b2+b4
What will you play here ?
19.j6+a5
Cutting the connection between both the east and west brown islands in construction, as well as preparing a group of four light islands in the west side! Another idea is the threaten to play a bridge at Bh4+j6.
20. b6+b10
0f course George stops me from making the four islands connected group at the west side
21.b1+a3
That’s not very logical. It would have been more natural to play the bridge at h4+j6, though it would not have probably change the course of the game.
21. Bb4-b6
22.Bb1-d1
22. I1+j1
23. Bh4-j6
At last I remember that bridge! After playing this, I thought I could recover (and so did my opponent!) but...
23. a6+j2
24.c10+b9 h10+a7
25.a1+a2 f10+j9
26.pass j10+h10
Georges wins because he has more islands!
The first lesson I learned from this game is how important it can be to play the opening correctly. I also learned how powerful can be a central island with bridges flying away from it. Thirdly, another pattern that came to my mind is the danger of playing tiles just one row before the border: this usually allows your opponent to build unstoppable islands in the last row (like f9+f10+g10+h10 and j10+19+j8+j7)… But the most important lesson I learned from this game is "George is strong!" 
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