This seems like a path to expanding tic tac toe into the tactical genre, and I guess it fit in the time considering 2 authors maybe depending on your situation :)
This experience felt similar to the first time I played Conway’s Game of Life, in that I was not confident about the moves or what would happen, even though I intuited the basics.
Besides resolving the bugs, you might want to add some extra win conditions which tic tac toe needs anyways.
I would suggest adding tactics.