First move advantage

I always read that the first move advantage is a nice thing. Well my question is that is this advantage sufficient to win a game?

What do you think, with perfect play by both sides, will white win or it will be a draw?

I think somewhere I read following:

With perfect play by both sides White first gains a positional advantage, then wins a pawn, then a knight for a pawn. The game reaches endgame with White King, Rook and Knight versus Black King and Rook. With perfect play White cannot force checkmate, so the game ends in a draw.

I can't cite the source, neither know if it is right, but I like it :) If this is right, it means that every chess game in history that didn't end in a draw was 'flawed', which for me means that chess will never be solved by computers.

You are very true, every game which didn't end in a draw had a loser, who must have commited mistakes

I have also read somewhere that this first move advantage get quickly dissolved in games of lower rated players

Even drawn games (which have no loser) can be flawed. Just because a game is drawn, doesn't make it perfect.

I would like chess.com to have a survey on this question

I am not saying that all drawn games are perfect, of course there can be 'mistakes'. like here http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1338514, but who cares about the mistakes. they make the chess and also the life interesting.

Among the best players, masters and above there is virtually no debate--chess is a draw with best play on both sides.

Only players not experienced enough in chess would think chess is a win for either side with best play.

I've seen some stats showing that the usual difference for a top player between his white and black games is 100-150 Elo. So someone rated 2800 would in general perform maybe 2740 with black and 2860 with white. That's why it's considered such an advantage to have an extra white in a tournament, even if it of course isn't enough to be winning out of the opening it does improve the winning chances quite a bit in practice.

lol

ALWAYS TRY FOR FIRST MOVE ADVANTAGE

Yes, always try to play White.

Its a advantage but not big enough for the win.

In all of chess I think white is supposed to score something like 54% to black's 46%. It's a small advantage, which is probably best captured in the concept of the "right to an inaccuracy". If white makes a slightly inaccurate move in the opening, it's no big deal, the position is probably just equal. But if black makes a similar inaccuracy, his position could soon become difficult.

But anyone who thinks chess is a forced win for white is simply demonstrating that they understand nothing about chess.

As can be seen from the links below the performance with white vs black the last decade looks like this for Kasparov and Kramnik.

Kasparov: 2876 with white, 2753 with black (124 points difference)

Kramnik: 2842 with white, 2713 with black (129 points difference)

http://members.aon.at/sfischl/white.txt

http://members.aon.at/sfischl/black.txt

Still, some players on this site might need this information tatooed on their butt, in order to remember it.  

Because this same topic is restarted, just about every month of the year.

This debate is drawn with best play.  Chess I am not so sure of.

We all know from our white games that the starting position is a draw. But we know from our black games that this cannot be true.

I don`t think there is a big first move advantage (speaking of players at my level). The only good thing I can see is that I can chose an opening when I am White. I know people who play better with black pieces. But your question made me check my stats and they show there is a first move advantage. I finished 522 games (standard, turn based - 256 as White, 266 as Black) and my stats are:

White - 71%W/ 11%L/ 18%D

Black - 68%W/ 14%L/ 18%D.

My average opponent rating (last 3 months) is 1639 when I win, 1990 when I lose, and 1848 when I draw. 496 games were tournament ones which means I played the same opponent with both colours. 

It is interesting that I have better results as White even in Chess960 but I have finished only 59 games which is not enough to make a conclusion.

Anyway, I don`t think the first move advantage is sufficient to win a game.

Some more stats, counting 2005-09 and a few of the "whiter" players well below the top five:

Grischuk 2797 with white, 2660 with black (137 points difference)

Naiditsch 2734 with white, 2597 with black (137 points difference)

Bu Xiangzhi 2745 with white, 2613 with black (132 points difference)

http://members.aon.at/sfischl/white0509.txt

http://members.aon.at/sfischl/black0509.txt

As can be seen Kramnik was one of the "whitest" players in this period with 2854 as white and 2700 with black (154 points difference).

In the Appendix of the article on "Pairwise comparison of chess opening variations" there is an estimate of white's first move advantage using controlled engine experiments. A sample size of 900 games was used. The mean estimated value of the first move advantage is 5.89% (with a 95% confidence interval of 4.4% to 7.4%). This means that white enjoys a 5.89% probability of winning because it is always one move ahead of black. Of course this advantage is easily squandered as for example in 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. Bxc6 instead of 4. Bxc6. Here is a link to the paper that contains the estimation of the first move advantage.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2472783