Estimates of the source sky location for the first detected gravitational wave signals will likely be poor, typically spanning areas of hundreds of square degrees or more. It will be a great challenge for most telescopes to search such large sky regions for their counterpart signals in the electromagnetic spectrum. To boost the chance of successfully observing such counterparts, we have developed an algorithm which maximises the detection probability by optimising the number of observing fields, and the time allocation for those fields. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we use the algorithm to optimise the follow-up observations of the Subaru telescope for two simulated gravitational wave events, each spanning an area of about $300~\mathrm{deg^2}$. Assuming a source at about $200~\mathrm{Mpc}$, we demonstrate that the Subaru telescope should observe about $150$ fields over a $\mathrm{6-hour}$ observing period to obtain a maximum detection probability about $70\%$. The maximum detection probability is reduced to about $30\%$ for a $\mathrm{1-hour}$ observing period requiring about $34$ fields.
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