In chess, why does white go first?

Conjecture:

I went to a Vietnamese Pho restaurant. The wife mans the cash register. The husband plays Chinese Chess all day with the patrons.

We play Chinese Chess. I flip a coin, I got heads. 

I said: I go first.

The blue board was on my side.

The owner of the restaurant said: Ok, you go first.

I turned the board around and said: Red goes first.

He didn't know that rule (it doesn't matter, Chinese Chess is symmetrical and not chiral).

That is probably so in Western Chess. Maybe long ago, either color can go first, but some time in history it was codified that White goes first.

By the way, that was chess in real life.

Not chess online. Not chess in a chess club. Chess in real life, chess as a part of every day life. Like dancing used to be or is in the Latin American community, not dancing on TV, not dancing on a stage. Dancing in real life.

I read that originally people did not like white because a white flag means surrender. So to give people a reason to want to play with the white pieces, it was decided white goes first.

I think this was correct

Revive time...🙂🙃

because some day in the

I have read that at one time the pieces were red and black, not white. Don't know when it changed. But I don't think it's of any great importance.

Someone has to go first. They just chose white.

And I don't think it's supposed to be racist. In checkers, black usually goes first.

But does it really matter which goes first? They have the exact same position if either white or black went first.

it's not supposed to be racist, for example, if chess were made so the colors were red and blue, and blue always went first, no one would claim that it was "racist"

white goes first because someone has to

Historically, either side was able to move first. Players would just decide who goes first in each game; sometimes white and sometimes black. It was only decided that white should move first circa year 1500s so that standardizing could make writing opening notation easier.

p.s. My comment will probably get buried, but this is what I heard regarding why white moves first. Unrelated topic, but if you want to play Chaturanga (game chess originated from), it is a chess.com variant! https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturanga

Someone has to go first I guess they flipped a coin.

Chaturanga is the game Chess originated from and this was from India. It later moved to Europe centuries later. You can play Chaturanga as a chess variant on chess.com:

https://www.chess.com/variants/chaturanga

Someone has to go first. They chose white. That is why white go first.

because i say so

Because I chose to, and this question gets asked a lot with new chess players, or people who are curious about the game.

It is supposed that white army starts the battle against evil black army!! If the white army during the game does not find any mistake the game ends in a peace draw. On the other side black uses zugzwang or giving more tempos away and hopping for mistakes!!

My response to "Why does white go first in chess?"

Because they made that a rule. I could be any colour on any different board, White, Black, Red, Blue, Green, etc. There was also controversy for tournaments, so they chose black. If black suddenly went first after years of white going first, there would be no change of theory. White's openings would be blacks, and vice versa.

white ends up going first because someone had to go first or else it would be chaos

To give both parties the same chances, they should start simultaneously.