Answers.Body: <p>Generally white is considered to have a slight advantage, and black needs to "equalize". However there are also voices (e.g. András Adorján with his "Black is OK" books) who challenge this view and attribute the results of black to a mix of inferior, too passive openings ("defences") for black and the power of "self-fulfilling prophecies". </p>
  
  <p>Personally I think the truth lies in the middle: White <em>has</em> a slight edge, but it would be smaller if players with black would be more confident and aggressive.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2013-06-28T07:44:21.093Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-06-28T07:44:21.093Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Landei
Answers.Body: <p>The advantage of the first move gets more significant as you go up the rating scale. At the GM level, white typically scores about 56% to black's 44%.</p>
  
  <p>I would expect as you go down the rating tree the advantage of the first move would disappear, as lower rated players typically need a larger advantage in order to convert it to a win, and also lower rated players are more prone to making mistakes that give away the advantage (or the game).</p>
  
  <p>By the time you reach "normal" club-level players, I'd be surprised if the advantage of the first move was more significant than the probability of a an error giving away the game.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2013-06-30T19:22:50.650Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-06-30T19:22:50.650Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Arlen
Answers.Body: <p>White enjoys a first move advantage i chess that can be translated to about a 6% probability of winning the game. This advantage is a universal constant independent of the level of play. The first move advantage is of course easily squandered and in lower levels of play. The details of this estimate may be found in the appendix of the article on pairwise comparison of chess opening variations. here is the link
  <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2472783" rel="nofollow">http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2472783</a>
  your comments greatly appreciated.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-07-31T09:38:50.890Z
Answers.Text: 6% probability of winning is not very good is it?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Lee Kowalkowski
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Jamal Munshi
Answers.Body: <p>In high level games, white wins 30 percent and black wins 20 percent. </p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-09-18T23:10:47.973Z
Answers.Text: Do you have any evidence for this? If so, please cite it. If not, what is this based on?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Henry Keiter
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-09-22T17:45:16.897Z
Answers.Text: My evidence is based on chesstempo.com database. Also, comments above me shows a 10% difference between black and white. It might not be the best numbers, but it should be close to truth.
Answers.UserDisplayName: CognisMantis
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Answers.CreationDate: 2014-09-18T16:30:34.933Z
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Answers.UserDisplayName: CognisMantis
Answers.Body: <p>It really depends on what level of chess you're looking at. At the amateur level (&lt;2200), I would hypothesize that white's supposed "first-move advantage" is relatively insignificant. However, it's quite evident at the higher levels that white has an advantage when playing mainstream openings - please reference the <a href="http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/opening-database.html" rel="nofollow">Shredder Opening Database</a> for the details of individual moves. For example, out of the 242,221 Grandmaster games where White has played <code>1. e4</code>, he has scored 54.5%. </p>
  
  <p>Chess players and theorists generally agree that White has a certain first-move advantage. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-move_advantage_in_chess" rel="nofollow">page on Wikipedia</a> is certainly a fascinating read.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2013-06-27T11:10:37.010Z
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Andrew Ng
Body: <p>I am beginner in chess but in my mind one question overcome, Does white have an advantage with the first move?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-06-27T06:02:16.127Z
Comments.Text: I won't close this question unilaterally, but as it is written, I think it might reasonably be considered a duplicate of the earlier question http://chess.stackexchange.com/q/1494/167.
Comments.UserDisplayName: ETD
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Comments.CreationDate: 2013-06-27T07:18:37.570Z
Comments.Text: Subhash, please merge the two accounts you currently have: http://chess.stackexchange.com/contact/user-merge
Comments.UserDisplayName: ETD
Tags: <opening><strategy><analysis><attack><defense>
Title: White have an advantage with the first move
ThreadText: # White have an advantage with the first move
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-06-27)
  
  I am beginner in chess but in my mind one question overcome, Does white have an advantage with the first move?
  
  **Tags:** opening, strategy, analysis, attack, defense
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: I won't close this question unilaterally, but as it is written, I think it might reasonably be considered a duplicate of the earlier question http://chess.stackexchange.com/q/1494/167.  
  > **username_1**: Subhash, please merge the two accounts you currently have: http://chess.stackexchange.com/contact/user-merge  
  
  ---
  
  ## 5 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2013-06-27. Score: 4 | Accepted answer
  
  It really depends on what level of chess you're looking at. At the amateur level (<2200), I would hypothesize that white's supposed "first-move advantage" is relatively insignificant. However, it's quite evident at the higher levels that white has an advantage when playing mainstream openings - please reference the [Shredder Opening Database](http://www.shredderchess.com/online-chess/online-databases/opening-database.html) for the details of individual moves. For example, out of the 242,221 Grandmaster games where White has played `1. e4`, he has scored 54.5%.
  
  Chess players and theorists generally agree that White has a certain first-move advantage. The [page on Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-move_advantage_in_chess) is certainly a fascinating read.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2013-06-28. Score: 3
  
  Generally white is considered to have a slight advantage, and black needs to "equalize". However there are also voices (e.g. András Adorján with his "Black is OK" books) who challenge this view and attribute the results of black to a mix of inferior, too passive openings ("defences") for black and the power of "self-fulfilling prophecies".
  
  Personally I think the truth lies in the middle: White *has* a slight edge, but it would be smaller if players with black would be more confident and aggressive.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2013-06-30. Score: 3
  
  The advantage of the first move gets more significant as you go up the rating scale. At the GM level, white typically scores about 56% to black's 44%.
  
  I would expect as you go down the rating tree the advantage of the first move would disappear, as lower rated players typically need a larger advantage in order to convert it to a win, and also lower rated players are more prone to making mistakes that give away the advantage (or the game).
  
  By the time you reach "normal" club-level players, I'd be surprised if the advantage of the first move was more significant than the probability of a an error giving away the game.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2014-07-30. Score: 0
  
  White enjoys a first move advantage i chess that can be translated to about a 6% probability of winning the game. This advantage is a universal constant independent of the level of play. The first move advantage is of course easily squandered and in lower levels of play. The details of this estimate may be found in the appendix of the article on pairwise comparison of chess opening variations. here is the link
  <http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2472783>
  your comments greatly appreciated.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_5**: 6% probability of winning is not very good is it?  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2014-09-18. Score: -2
  
  In high level games, white wins 30 percent and black wins 20 percent.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_7**: Do you have any evidence for this? If so, please cite it. If not, what is this based on?  
  > **username_6**: My evidence is based on chesstempo.com database. Also, comments above me shows a 10% difference between black and white. It might not be the best numbers, but it should be close to truth.  
  
  ---
  
  