Rule based styling with select-by-intersection syntax

Question

I want to do rule based styling for a selection of gridded polygons dependent on their position relating to another layer. I want to show the polygon that a point feature based in an atlas falls within which I have managed with

intersects($geometry,@atlas_geometry)

The tougher bit is that I also want to show the 8 grid boxes that surround the central grid box in another style. Unfortunately, as the grid is rectangular, not square, I cannot just use a buffer of the atlas feature as when the feature is close to the edge it will show features to the east/west before north/south. I have tried using nested intersections such as

intersects($geometry,intersects($geometry,@atlas_geometry))

but no luck so far. I want to do this dynamically so it shows just the grid surrounding the atlas feature and without having to create any more new layers.

Answer 1

Your objection to buffering only applies to the point. It would not be a problem if you buffer the polygon that you have just found. Also, instead on doing a buffer operation followed by and intersects, why not search in a single step with "touches" based on the red rectangle?