Chess, a game about true equality

[Vegosiux]

I had no idea who-goes-first was interchangeable. Must have been changed after the civil war emancipation or something.

It's really not, white always goes first. Closest thing to letting black go first would be white playing a3 on first move, basically doing nothing for their position and development.

I had no idea who-goes-first was interchangeable.

It's not, at least according to the FIDE Laws of Chess [http://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=124&view=article]:

The game of chess is played between two opponents who move their pieces alternately on a square board called a 'chessboard'. The player with the white pieces commences the game. A player is said to 'have the move', when his opponent's move has been 'made'. (See Article 6.7)

It's a relatively recent rule in terms of chess history, though. It wasn't really codified until 1889 by Wilhelm Steinitz (the first world chess champion).

Ahyes, this guy ninja'd me. But true, true indeed.

 

[Summerstorm]

You know that moving first can be a huge disadvantage in chess right? So actually it's an advantage to be black, coz if your opponent moves first a good chess player can figure out his strategy based on what they move first and how they move it.

Untrue... here have a huge wikipedia entry for this *g*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-move_advantage_in_chess

The better the players are, the more pronounced the advantage of being white is *g*. (But yeah i myself prefer playing black too, more of a reactive strategy)

 

[lacktheknack]

Yeah, chess is classist towards poor people, sexist towards men and encourages racial segregation and conflict. I think it's a disgusting example to be setting to our children.

On the topic of "Racial segregation and conflict", I'm assuming you're referring to the White vs. Black motif.

But what of the many antique chessboards that depict the struggle between white and RED, as depicted in Lewis Carrol's "Through the Looking Glass"? Is White vs. Red still considered a raci-

...oh.