Playing as Black is Impossible

Does anyone know how to play as the black pieces and not explode immediately? Like is black just straight up harder to play or do I have more holes in my brain than swiss cheese?

Every match (I play on 15 | 10) has felt like a 50/50 gamble where I could lose before the game even begins. And I really don't like aborting matches because it could end up with a warning or a potential ban.

Now If I recall correctly you could choose to play random games only as white, but that means the people who are playing black *chose* to play as black and probably know very well what they're doing.

It doesn't really matter to me points-wise because getting to 200 / 300 from 100 isn't that hard, or at least shouldn't be that hard (idk, I might just be too stupid for this game). But booting up a game and immediately starting at a disadvantage has been both demotivating and tilting at the same time to me.

I want playing as black to not suck but any information I could find are either memorizing dozens of openings or very broad advice you would see in a loading screen like "develop your pieces to the center".

That's chess. Black is second to act, so they start the game with a disadvantage. Your first goal is just to equalize. If you are playing correctly, that can be done in 5 or 6 turns.

Your main problem is you aren't developing anything. Take this game for example.
https://www.chess.com/game/live/165879727114You are just pushing pawns. Get your knights and bishops out and castle and you won't have to worry about getting blown off the board.

Or this game. https://www.chess.com/game./live/165833133992 Again, you move a bunch of pawns around instead of developing your pieces. Plus you're playing a 15|10 and end the game with almost 14 minutes on the clock.

You aren't losing because you are playing black. You are losing because you don't follow any basic chess principles. The good news is, this can all be fixed. As long as you are taking the time to review your games and trying to improve, you'll get there eventually.

Playing as black is fun IMO.

Listen up!!!

If you have an inherent talent for chess, then the way most of the closet masters tell you to approach openings works. 

However, if your like me... where every step forward is two steps backward ... it doesn't work!

I do most of my playing on Lichess I'm 1860 elo and climbing (that's high 1500s to low 1600s here) 

What worked for me was to study a particular pawn formation.

 In my case it was the triangle pawn formation i.e. pawns at c6, d5 and e6. First, I studied what does the formation defend against, (a simple example : a pawn push to e4 by White) then I studied how to attack with the pawn formation (a simple example: pushing a pawn to e5 or c5) then I studied how minor pieces worked in relation to the pawn formation (a simple example: Nf6 covers e4, Nbd7 assisted with the attack when you push the pawn to e5, a bishop at d6 is primed to assist with an attack on White's king ) Then I studied the major pieces and how they interact with the pawn formation. (a simple example: A rook placed behind a pawn attack... if and when that file becomes either half open of completely open you are contesting the control of it. Then I studied how the major and minor pieces worked together in relation to the triangle pawn formation. Then, I started deconstructing what I did, looking at possible endgame pawn formations (a simple example: a majority pawn advantage on the queenside 3 vs 2 )

When it came time to look at the Orthodox defense of the QGD the ideas , the themes , the tactics and the endgames where much more understandable.

I feel there was a HUGE advantage of studying the opening phase of the game this way.  Understand openings below 2500 elo openings are really overrated  (not my words... many GMs online say exactly this) Your opponent, more than often, regardless of what opening you play as White or Black, will equalize to some extent in the opening phase. Because I develop a knowledge of what my pawns and pieces can do, when in those positions, I discovered that the person who gets the advantage and initiative in the middle game is the person who comes up with the plan and puts it into action first. If you have several that you can spin off each other, dependent on how your opponent responds EVEN Better! 

Essentially, I did what really good chess players tells you to do... Don't memorize, understand the themes and the tactics...understand what the opening is doing... I just broke it down even further because chess does not come naturally to me. 

hope this helps, best of luck

White begins with an advantage, by reason of his initial move.

There are two main philosophies for playing the Black pieces.

One doctrine seeks to first dull the edge of White's natural initiative, wear it down and equalize the game, and only afterward to seek to gain the advantage with the Black pieces. This strategy has the advantage that it takes a series of small steps, rather than taking one big risk.

The other doctrine is to accept (or even ignore) the fact that your chances are worse, and to meet White in open battle and try to out-maneuver or out-play him. Naturally this is a riskier plan, but it offers a bigger pay-off if you can pull it off successfully.

Games are win lose or draw. So it's always a gamble with relative ratings providing an educated guess of the outcome.

For eg this game was not about playing black but missing the scholar's mate pattern entirely

Whoa

it is if you respond with e5 opposing e4 there is alot of stuff you have to know. still possible just study theory

Dont really care much if I play white or black ?

Yes black is slightly harder, but not to a degree thats important.

The probably most fun game I had on chess.com so far was with black:

That was quite the battle !

Black is weird 😷

https://www.chess.com/game/live/165833811132?move=0

This is an elementary checkmate which has more or less happened to everyone. It is easy to foresee and avoid, and probably exploit the queen's early excursion. But:

https://www.chess.com/game/live/165879727114?move=0

A couple of days later, you are checkmated again by the same cheapo. You have spent 4 seconds to play 5...Nc6 which allows mate in one, and this means that you do play carelessly, and also you don't analyse the games you have played.

It has nothing to do with Black and White. You are a beginner, and you need to put in some effort to improve.

https://www.chess.com/game/live/165833133992?move=0

An improvement would be not wrongly thinking that you are lost and resigning games like this one in a position where you are certainly not worse (actually I think that this is rather tough to play as white).

You were complaining about the very same thing 4 years ago. Nothing worked, or nothing done?

I like Bronstein's (I think it was him but I may be wrong) opinion on this, White has the first move and so black has a move disadvantage, but Black sees what White has moved and so has the knowledge advantage...It wasn't put as clunkily as I have put it...But its a nice perspective....he aslo said (I think) that the greatest advantage in chess is having the next move....so you know ...Tomaeto Tomato.

Hello

Just because you get the “Disadvantage“, doesn’t mean that you’re going to lose every single time. It’s about the outcome, not the start. Just because there is the “+0.4” when you’re black doesn’t mean its game changing, it’s basically even. Try some defenses, maybe the French and Caro-Kann against 1.e4. I personally like the Dutch Defense against d4, but it’s risky. So get a solid opening, or system and watch some lessons in chess.com.

I mean to even get the rest of my pieces to do anything I have to push my pawns to setup my guys.

But again it's harder to do that because again, white gets to push them first.

I've been trying to get better, I try to play at least 1 game per day. And heck, I bought diamond rank so I can review every game I've done and try out some puzzles (that probably taught me nothing).

Daily puzzles help tremendously, actually.

Even me, and I'm in my 50s. If I was still a kid, it would probably help magnitudes more.

Improve at chess and which color you are will hardly matter. In blitz I have a 53% win rate with white and 50% with black.