Is it an advantage to have the white pieces?

You may think the title is a little bit daft. If you win the toss you take white on odd boards and all the even boards groan and moan about how this is their 4th black in a row etc. White is supposed to have the advantage.

So yesterday having the white pieces in the first round against Barnby Dun should have given me the advantage. Some 15 minutes later having been comprehensively out played by black I just couldn’t see it. As the round progressed, other players made up for my sloppy play and at the half way point we were drawing. As my opponent, Barnby Dun’s captain pointed out to me black had won all 4 games.

Surely this would not continue.  In my game with black I quickly won a piece and made no mistake in converting the win . Gerald likewise won with black against Ed. Peter Catt with the black pieces gained revenge on Vlad for his first round defeat. It was left to board 1 Richard D to prove that white could occasionally win. His win brought us a 5-3 victory which was nowhere near as impressive as blacks 7-1 triumph over white.

On a personal note after 7 games back OTB 4 rapid 3 classical I have 4/4 with black 1/3 with white [2 draws]. So when the captain gets me black I shall stop moaning. But perhaps I ought to put some more work into my openings with white.

1 thought on “Is it an advantage to have the white pieces?”

  1. Pete Micklethwaite

    Following on from Richard’s message, As a Captain I regularly take the stance give myself black if the team is an even number players. A 5 board team means I please 3 team-mates and only upset 2 – is this being Democratic??

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