Color Favoritism on Chess.com?

Should one have the option to choose color on Chess.com?

My vote: NO

Don't be prejudice, but rather balanced! A good chess player should learn to play with both colors equally well. It is likely going to be a difficult adjustment for those who favored one color. However, this adjustment in the long-term is for the better if one is genuinely wanting to improve.

Just some thoughts...

~Jerry~

I agree. You can not learn what you need to know if one is allowed to remain in a "comfort zone".

Jer

Good point  i have a friend Desert Prince who knows a lot of things about black openings that knid of stuf but with white he is like you say a fish out of water

Well I don't agree very much because there might be a day that you only want to improve your opening, for example, and you don't want to do anything else but that so it is good for those kind of stuff.

I know there are always players that can only play white and nothing else and that sucks but it is unfair for those who want to practise the opening. Besides, in the rematch, the colors swap so you get white again ;).

Why take away an option that was a useful feature to some people?

when I got into chess about 3 years ago, I got fascinated with the sicilian defence. I can safely say that I use to seek as black and got enough sicilian practise that way (I would abort if someone played d4 and send out a new seek).

as white, I love to play a lot of gambits and there is a lot of utility in able to seek the color you want.

if you want to practice a specific opening or play just one color, then you can do that in an UNRATED game, or by challenging a friend. 

because what was useful to some people, was harmful to everyone else. 

I agree. I think that it is bad for you. When you go to an OTB tourney, you won't have the option of saying, "I play white" you play half black half white.

I couldn't agree more with you, ChessNetwork

thanks Erik and Schachgeek.that's useful info.

as long as the feature is there even if its unrated, that's great.

I prefer to play as black, but I'm just fine with playing white.

I think the factor that governs some people's color preference is their playing style.  Some like to attack right away and love to play as white.  Some like to counterattack after neutralizing their opponent's attack, and you'll find yourself on the counterattack side of this scenario as black a lot more than you will as white.  I am a counterattacker, and so that is why I said earlier I prefer to play as black.  Even as white, I will not play too aggressively and instead let my opponent blunder and then counterattack once the mistake is made.

Personally, I think that you can attack and counterattack as both colors, but the subliminal messages you get as white and black affect how you play.  Sometimes I do get overzealous with my attacks as white and my plan falls through.  However, I believe that as black, I lose more because of poorly planned defense than a careless assault.

So, I think a big reason for color prejudice is playing style.  Some people probably freak as black because of the subliminal message that you must play defense.  Some people are uneasy as white because it is implied that you must attack straight away.

It's just a thought and maybe I'm just naive.  That's for you guys to judge.

Also, my vote is YES.  People should be allowed to choose their color.  Some people play the game just for fun and for some people, that can't be done when they are out of their comfort zone.  I also pose this question:

For all of you nay-sayers about the color-choosing option, is it really so hard to just click the "random" option?

The fact of the matter is that in unrated games you have the ability to choose color; I find it completely ridiculous that anyone would want to play just one color in chess; many players have thousands of games played as one color with maybe only a few of the other, that is a very prominent problem!

so stupid people are complaining about this.

just play UNRATED GAMES!!!!! if you want to practice with a single color.

Yes, many people just want to play one color in chess.  As I said before, some people play chess purely for fun and they only have fun when they play as one color.  You must take that into consideration.

Blonde, Brunette, Redhead....it's so hard to choose.

In relation to trig's comment, why would you guys start a forum thread dedicated to bashing color favoritists?

I think it's nice to be able to try out an opening as one side... if you want to play queen's pawn games as black, for example, as I was trying to do the other day.  I understand that some players will decide to exclusively play one color, but I really don't very much care about them.  

ok I have a question. I couldn't choose a color even if I wanted to play an unrated game. there isn't a seperate pull down menu (to choose color) when you choose unrated.

am I doing something wrong?