Systemic Racism in Chess: White moves first.
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People. A game is a game. There is no point in saying it is racist. There are whites in our eyes. Our eyes must be racist as there are whites not blacks. There is no logic
The pupil, that which lets in and modulates the light, is black. The eyes are ebony and ivory working together in perfect harmony. Chess is also black and white, but the relationship between the colors is entirely adversarial.
Maybe allow pieces on either side to be black and white, but they wear jerseys with designs and numbers.
You can change to Black First in the options.
Jul 7, 2020
0
#7
What about games like Draughts or Go where black moves first? Is that not "racist" too. What about the fact that the Queen, while being outnumbered by males, is the most powerful piece on the board. Is that not sexist or feminist?
As pointed out before, the matter of not making chess notation confusing needs to be address before starting colour can be randomised.
my mistake, never mind.
I thought I could have an interesting conversation.
Like my poor chess playing, my judgment continues to be lacking.
This began in England 🏴 in the 1700’s
how about we change things to blue and red
Jul 7, 2020
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#13
NH82 wrote:
You're actually creating more racism by making this post. Congrats
Agreed. Please let it go.
Jul 7, 2020
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#14
Any idiot that claims chess is racist should remember this.
There is no such thing as White people. We are Caucasian.
In chess, White goes first, not Caucasian. Therefore, chess is not racist!
And also, there are more games where Black goes first than White (or red in the case of checkers):
Chess - White
Checkers - Black
Go - Black
Othello (a.k.a.Reversi) - Black
Backgammon - Whoever rolls the higher number at face-off.
I am not white
From India 🇮🇳
Jul 7, 2020
0
#17
The origins of chess date back to 3rd century India. I doubt racism was a factor.
In 🇺🇸
No grymsailor
I agree fundamentally with what you say. I like random designs and colors for the pieces and the squares on the checkered board, but refer to the players as “The Initial” and ”The Subsequent”. For the pieces, I would refer to the king as “short range prize”, the queen as “tridimensional long range mover”, the bishops as “unidimensional diagonal monochromatic long range mover 1” (and 2), the knight as “unique bichromatic short range mover 1” (and 2), the rook as “bidimensional long range mover 1” (and 2), and pawns as “patriotic heroes who would never disrespect the flag”