Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/08/22 23:50This question began to circulate around my chess club, my chess instructor told us to think about which side of the chess board was better then the other. I said black, but others said white...You decide ---------
'Tis I, the Master of Illusion, the Lonley God of Nowhere...
Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/08/23 02:53well white obviously as he can move first, however it is down to preferance to which side you perform better with. Black i think is equal provided he plays correctly. The petroff defence is an example of black being able to equalise if he plays correctly
Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/08/23 08:50From the theory of chess (mathematically proven), there is no "stronger" side: if a game were to be played correctly from both sides, it would end up in a draw, the advantage of white having the first move not being enough to secure a victory.
In practice, playing with white gives you the advantage of selecting the opening, which is not a minor advantage, especially for non advanced players.
I agree, though, that in the end, at non GM level, it is probably just a matter of preference.
Cheers all,
Andrea ---------
Playing on Playchess.com as AndreaCoda.
Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/08/23 09:52true, i always found that i seemed to play better playing black. But that doesn't mean playing white is bad, it just means im more comfortable playing as black! The best analogy i can give to all the people reading this are two fighters, one is a European Knight (He is white), and the second is a Asian judo martial artist (He is black). The Knight, can take control of the battle (Chess) by hacking and slashing, like you see in the movies. But for me, the cool Asian martial artist (Jackie chan, Jet Li, Tom cruise) Uses the Knights own strength against him. And most time the Asain dude wins and sometime the European Knight wins...At least thats how it is for me My 2 cents on my own thread... ~Oberoth ---------
'Tis I, the Master of Illusion, the Lonley God of Nowhere...
Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/08/24 08:49Yeah, but all the kids wanna be like the Asian dude...If your referring to my poor analogy haha.
Post edited by: Oberoth, at: 2008/08/24 08:50 ---------
'Tis I, the Master of Illusion, the Lonley God of Nowhere...
Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/09/25 08:51There are a number of ways to look at this.
Offhand one should say that white is better. In the opening white tries to secure an advantage which he hopes would win him the game. Black on the other hand is trying to secure equality. Only when he has equalized can he start to look for an advantage himself.
There are some openings in which black counter-attack before he has complete equality but in them black's game will always have a slightly fragile quality to it. All you have to do is look at a database and you will see that the winning percentage for white is higher in most openings. Sometimes slightly and at other times much more than slightly.
However. It is easier to build a black opening repertoir. You decide on one response for black to e4, one to d4, and perhaps one to c4. If you understand opening principles you should be fine at least in the beginning. White on the other hand has to prepare for every response to his favourite king pawn, queen pawn etc. For example somebody once said that the only problem with the Ruy Lopez is the Sicilian defense.
Once the opening is over however the colours make no difference at all.
Re:Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/10/20 06:02I'd like to see the studies since my impressions have been no computer exists capable of computing all possible moves (and this would seem to imply no mathematical proof could claim the sides are equal, as they can in checkers or tic-tac-toe).
Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/11/10 22:28I prefer to play with Black, I like to fight for the initiative, knowing that I am slightly worse normally
Re:Is it better to play as Black or White? - 2008/11/14 07:15I believe that it was Savielly Tartakower who once quipped that "Black has a forced win, because White makes the first mistake."
But all seriousness aside (as the late, great Steve Allen used to say), White scores about 55% based on games in big databases. This percentage applies if a draw counts as a half a win and a half a loss for each player.
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