Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for December, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Single Comment

First move advantage in Western Chess - why does it exist?[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Joe Joyce wrote on Wed, Sep 5, 2012 05:56 AM UTC:
Okay, HG, it seems to me you are essentially saying that any game with
promotion would have pretty much the same white first move advantage, if I
understand you correctly. At least, it appears to me that it follows from
everything you've said. 

The "linearity" that bothers me - it's because it is set up after the
game is over - there is a calculated win. This comes about because one side
is advanced a rank. I ask how this happens. If white just starts out on
ranks 2 and 3, then the advantage for white is literally a shorter distance
to promote, and the game is unfair at that point. If the players fought it
out until that point was reached, well, 3/8ths of games are draws, which
means 5/8ths are won or lost. I don't have a problem with saying that
white outplayed black enough to gain the step and thus the game. 

If the position at our starting to contemplate the situation is such that
white wins, then either the situation was set up unfairly to begin with, or
white outplayed black enough to create the situation. Am I missing
something? [I could be - my sinuses been messin' with me lately, and that
will turn me brain-dead.] Why doesn't black have equal chances to promote?