Alot of my friends when i tell them i play chess, tell me that chess is racist because the white pieces always go first. They reckon it should be decided on the toss of a coin. What do others think?

Interesting "friends"... Maybe you should post, "How do I get new friends???"

But in chess, black and white are equal rivals... how can that be racist?

The question is relative, someone else might say...Is chess sexist?

Cos its always the king that is protected.

Are you friends black?  Otherwise it's hard to see anyone coming out and saying something like that.  If they're not black, then I think they're probably just saying something idiotic to see how it sits.  Or maybe they just have a mental hang up.  Or maybe their negro friends are telling them to say such things.

It's just a board game with colors.  It would be like saying playing marbles is racist.  Or checkers is racist.  People are.  Games aren't.

Whomever your freinds are, it's just a dopey thing to say.

D.J.

 Super!

It is interesting, the religious zealots, the bishops, stay on the straight and narrow. They see the world as black or white. They must be different denominations. They cooperate against the pagans but push come to shove, they won't defend each other.

It's fun to sometimes put the drunken cowboys up against the religious zealots. It's seems to be best done in a closed situation, i.e. lots of towns people around. Out in the open without support, the drunken cowboys fall down a lot.

Sorry I couldn't come up with a serious response. The question is hard to take seriously. It would be like protesting asphalt roads for being racists.

Are you suggesting some form of affirmative action? Something to compensate for white's early advantage?

I guess you could interprete it as blonde vs. brunette. Maybe, disregard color and make it tall vs. short pieces or....obese pieces vs. thin pieces. No one would object.

They're very good friends thank you and play chess themselves to a very high level.

Yes black and white are equal during the game, but nobody has explained yet why white always goes first.

For the sensitive, change the colors to blue and grey

What race do the white pieces belong to?

Isn't it the same race as the black pieces?

Hey,- it's just a game with two different colors

Checkers is an inferior game to chess though, so that could well be classed as racism by stealth.

What colors should we use?

• Red would be called representative of communism
• Orange is symbolic somewhat of fire
• Yellow mocks the player, comparing to a school bus.
• Blue mocks the player, comparing them to the bottom of the ocean
• Green sybolizes growth, as if the player is improving fast
• No guy would play with pink pieces
• Brown is a boring neutral color
• Grey " " " " "
• Purple is red + blue, or communists at the bottom of the sea

Anyone with some time to kill can disprove any color. Changing won't fix it.

Reading Karl Marx would.

Um...just put the black pieces aligned like the white pieces are (king on the right) and play away.  Then say chess is actually a reverse-racism driven society.

Going last is not always a disadvantage.  Card games are a great example of this, as the player going last often has the opportunity to play a trump.

In the list of Master Games in the Game Explorer, white's chances are not much better than 1/3 (about 35%), and black is behind by a small amount (around 29%).  But by the time you get to the 10th most popular opening for white (1.e3), black actually wins around 45% of the time.

Your friends would have been really confused 150 years ago, when red was just as popular as black as a choice for the color of the dark pieces.

For racism one needs a racist, or at least some racist opinion. I fail to recognize it on the board.