White vs Black in Chess

[PhotonGuy]

Anybody have a preference in which side to play in Chess? Sides are determined randomly and white has the advantage of offense with the first move while black has the advantage of defense and being able to counter white, so anybody got a preferred side?

 

[Dirty Dog]

No.

 

[Blindside]

I heard that the black pieces start out white, but get darkened by years of players handling them and the dirt and blood of their practice gets so ingrained into the wood and eventually they become black.

 

[K-man]

White is the best as epitomised in ...

 

[Touch Of Death]

White is cool, but as soon as they give up the advantage with a blunder or a back up, black is white, and white is black.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I heard that the black pieces start out white, but get darkened by years of players handling them and the dirt and blood of their practice gets so ingrained into the wood and eventually they become black.

And a Chess Master will never wash their pieces, or all their knowledge will vanish.

 

[donald1]

i like and dislike chess... personally to me making chess strategies is confusing. i know the rules(or at least enough to play) and what to do but for me i choose to do whatever... i want to move this piece here! and this piece here! if it works out well i might do it again some other time

 

[donald1]

And a Chess Master will never wash their pieces, or all their knowledge will vanish.

hopefully they wash their hands before they play!

 

[tshadowchaser]

no choice I usually at a loss no matter which one I play

 

[elder999]

Anybody have a preference in which side to play in Chess? Sides are determined randomly and white has the advantage of offense with the first move while black has the advantage of defense and being able to counter white, so anybody got a preferred side?

All things being equal, white has a slight advantage in tournament play, being the winning side in about 52% of all games since the 19th century....for novices, and in speed chess, this advantage diminishes....there used to be a lot of talk about the "draw death" of chess, whereby grandmaster level play would always end in a draw 9all things being equal, so to speak) but t his hasn't been the case, even with supercomputers playing each other.

 

[elder999]

I do enjoy ceding that advantage to someone I've never played, though....

 

[Transk53]

I had a ST:TNG chess set. Was very cool at the time. Anyway great game however traditional pieced or not, but lacked the patience a lot of the time to play regularly.

 

[Rich Parsons]

As Elder her pointed out there is an advantage for those who are skilled.

As ToD pointed out is White plays safe and or blunders then the push can become Black.

Of course this goes back and forth as evidenced by the 52/48 percentage numbers.

Personally I like Black. I like to counter fight. I knew enough of the trick opening to avoid the quick mates and enough to get an idea of where they were going to attack. Sometimes it would target a weak / strong side knight. I might even use that as a bait to set a trap or an attack against one of their pieces.

I played some in college on on the Chess team. I was never good enough or consistent enough to make 4th chair and go on competitions. Although we had a top 25 ranked player as our 1st chair/table, I was the only one to ever beat him one on one from our school and when he lost to others on the team it was because he was playing 4 or 5 at once and me. He even told me it was my unorthodox moves that made him stop and think. This included speed chess as well. His appraisal of me was to be more cautious up front or the memorize 16 moves deep on the top 25 openings and counters, and my end game would make the difference. My style was in speed chess there are too many pieces to move slow, so get rid of them and see what you have left to play with and do your best. .

 

[granfire]

ALWAYS BET ON BLACK!!!!

I hate chess. Regardless of color.

 

[john2054]

elder999 is wrong about one thing however. Grandmaster chess tournaments, especially between the world champion, do often end in draws. You only need to look at recent events for evidence of this. It is quite commonly respected that White has the adavantage, or intiative if you will, and between games which are won in the opening this if often enough. Hence we find many players memorizing tonnes of openings, confident that they are able to win games with them. Often because of the traps associated with thus. But players who choose to concentrate on their middle or endgames, will have other such strategies to bring to the table, when the opening is over. I hope that helps add to the discussion, from someone who actually actively plays.

 

[elder999]

elder999 is wrong about one thing however. Grandmaster chess tournaments, especially between the world champion, do often end in draws. You only need to look at recent events for evidence of this.

"Grandmaster draws," are draws by agreement, typically between two participants in the last round of a tournament, often to guarantee shares in the prize money.

Magnus Carlsen defended his classical chess world championship (he's also the speed chess champion and blitz champion, so white's not much of an advantage against him ever ) against Anand, again, in Nov. 2014, by a margin of 6.5-4.5, with a game to spare, so..........what "recent events" are you speaking of?

I hope that helps add to the discussion, from someone who actually actively plays.

What makes you think I don't "actually actively play?"

Or anyone else who's posted to this thread, for that matter?

 

[john2054]

7 of the 11 games in that match were draws. please check your facts out next time okay? Magnus Carlsen is FIDE World Chess Champion 2014 Chessdom

 

[john2054]

grandmaster draw is the result of a game, being a draw, as opposed to the result of a tournament. Again you need to check your facts! Even when matches are drawn, they will play overtime until a victor is decided! check your facts edit i may have been wrong about this...(?)

 

[john2054]

The Match is a culmination of the two-year FIDE cycle and is played every two years between the incumbent Champion and the winner of the Candidates tournament. The Match is played over a maximum of twelve games and the winner of the match shall be the first player to score 6.5 points or more. If the scores are level after 12 games, 4 tie-break are played. from Sochi 2014

 

[john2054]

here are a list of the famous grandmaster chess draws in recent years:
Spassky versus Petrosian
Reshevsky versus Portisch
Averbakh versus Fischer
Karpov versus Kasparov 1984
Keres versus Petrosian
Tal versus Botvinnik
Polugaevsky versus Tal
Kasparov versus Karpov 1986
Kasparov versus Smyslov

and these were match draws okay? Draw by agreement - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

also here is a quote from the new york times: 'Grandmaster draws, the scourge of competition, are unfortunately alive and well.' http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/c...sist-but-so-do-fights-to-the-finish.html?_r=0