Altered Tic Tac Toe

Consider a 4 by 4 tic tac toe board where 4 X's have already been drawn in some configuration and player X is first to move. The goal of player X is to play optimally such that player O is eventually cornered into losing (player X gets a 4 in a row).

For example, a game might play out like this (Red is X, Blue is O):

• Red forces Blue into defensive moves until eventually pinning Blue (as indicated by the purple spaces). If Blue goes in one space, Red can go in the other and get 4 in a row.

Another example could be of a game where you have to systematically prove that every possible Blue move will lead to a Red victory without necessarily forcing Blue to make a defensive play:

• Notation: The bright blue 1's represent groups of possible first moves blue could make that would result in Red's following strategy. You'll find that cumulatively, every open space is covered by these three groups of Blue's first move, meaning no matter what Blue opens with, Red always has a winning strategy.

Is there any starting configuration of 4 X's on this 4 by 4 board where it is impossible for player X to win (a draw in considered a loss) even when playing optimally?

Bonus: How many starting X's are required for X to always win an $n$ by $n$ board when playing optimally?