it's always seemed a little odd to me that we cant choose what colour goes first, not sure what the history is that makes it white should always move first, doesnt that mean white will always have the advantage?
taking that into account, does anyone know any great players who preffered to play black?
Who went first used to be decided randomly when chess was just starting. For standardization of rules and ease of understanding other's games, White has been selected to go first. It's obviously much easier this way.
While, I don't know if some players actually preferred Black, Nimzo, Capablanca and Fischer had fantastic Black scores- usually better than with White.
Originally posted by eatmybishopI believe Maurice Ashley preferred to play black, or maybe it was forced
it's always seemed a little odd to me that we cant choose what colour goes first, not sure what the history is that makes it white should always move first, doesnt that mean white will always have the advantage?
taking that into account, does anyone know any great players who preffered to play black?
Originally posted by Fat LadyThat's definitely true... I seem to remember reading something somewhere that said Black was considered the lucky colour so to even things up when rules were standardised for modern tournament play it became the norm for White to go first.
I think Black sometimes went first until at least Morphy's time, but games in which this happened are now rewritten so that the player who moved first is considered to be White.
Originally posted by eatmybishopyes it does... which is why matches are played over an equal number of whites and blacks.
... doesnt that mean white will always have the advantage?
That said, I've always found in strange for non-double round all-play tournaments if there an even number of players then half of them are going to get one more white than black. This never seemed fair to me.
I read somewhere (so it must be true) that before World War II there were some Major League Baseball games in which the home team would bat first. Maybe back then the home team could choose whether to bat first or second.
Someone once proposed that White makes the first move just like the current rule, but then the second player can either make a move as Black or take White's position and make his or her opponent play Black!
So, if White plays 1 e4, then the second player would almost invariably take the White pieces and make his opponent play Black.
That would probably force White to play something like 1 e3 or 1 d3 so as to not incur the disadvantage of having to defend against an "optimal" move like 1 e4. This would probably significantly nullify the advantage of moving first.
Originally posted by exigentskyyou might enjoy the "going ape" article in this months chess life...
Who went first used to be decided randomly when chess was just starting. For standardization of rules and ease of understanding other's games, White has been selected to go first. It's obviously much easier this way.
While, I don't know if some players actually preferred Black, Nimzo, Capablanca and Fischer had fantastic Black scores- usually better than with White.
Originally posted by eatmybishopIt used to be that players could choose whichever color they wanted, and having White didn't mean they went first. They decided before the game or drew lots to decide who went first with no regard to which color they would play with. Whether it was the London Chess Club or the University of Oxford Chess Club or some other British chess club (my memory has currently failed me on this), one of these clubs acquired a new chess set whose pieces were white and red. Everyone loved the red pieces and wanted to play with them, and as you can imagine, deciding who got to use them for a game became a bit contentious. So to even things out, it was established that if a player received the red pieces, he had to move second. This practice of White getting the first move soon spread and became established as a rule of the game.
it's always seemed a little odd to me that we cant choose what colour goes first, not sure what the history is that makes it white should always move first, doesnt that mean white will always have the advantage?
taking that into account, does anyone know any great players who preffered to play black?