This may seem like a vague question, but do you know any good modern abstract games, that are based on scoring points (as opposed to achievieng goal such as checkmate opponent, connect edges of the board etc.)? I imagine that points could be scored when completing various goals, they can also have various point values.

I would like to try something that would include more “trade-off” component when considering best moves.

Any suggestions highly appreciated :)

StreetSoccer

Of the modern games on LittleGolem, Catchup and Polyomino has points. Amazons does not exactly have points, but it comes down to having bigger territory than opponent, so it's quite similar.

Azul and Qwirkle are positively acclaimed and has points, although they also have a little random factor, which may exclude them from being abstracts.

Game score difference

1:- I doubt it would make much difference to ratings, which are based on win/loss/draw

2:- Tournaments second sort is based on opposition defeated strength, adding as a third sort is unlikely to chance the order of final table

3:- Most games don't have a score, so extra programming would be redundant most of the time

Catchup was designed explicitly so you're constantly trading off between position and points (says I, Catchup's designer)

There's *Star by Ea Ea, Where you score points for controlling cells around the perimeter, but lose points if you use more disconnected groups than your opponent to do so.

Chaos tiles is a multiplayer tile game with several rule sets. In one of them, you claim, at any point in the game on your turn,  which as yet unclaimed color is your color. If you wait too long someone else will beat you to the high scorer, but if you jump the gun you may wind up with a dud.

I don't know Azul but the description says “Extra points are scored for specific patterns and completing sets; wasted supplies harm the player's score.”

I don't know Patchwork either but it has scoring and it's currently the second most popular abstract on Board Game Geek, so some trade-off during play is probably involved.

The “master version” of Torres has no hidden information nor randomness, and could be regarded as an abstract. It could also be called a Euro game, and as such, with relatively complicated rules, there are lots of trade-off judgements to make.

Blokus and Blokus Trigon are multiplayer abstracts which involve scoring. One example of a trade-off might be to play a large tile immediately or to block an opponent's threat to dominate the board..

Maybe Ponte Del Diavolo.

Have you tried Dots and Boxes?  It's about 130 years old, so it isn't very modern but it isn't ancient either.

As I understand the question, a lot of “modern” games stirsfy the required condition. To quote just a few available on the net: dvonn,taji, tonga, omega, symple, starweb (and Ponte del Diavolo).

A game of this kind has been very recently designed by Dieter Stein: Polar, which seems very interesting.