I think all beginners are better with white. Simply, because you get to start making moves and be the first one to make some threats. You can also steer the game towards a direction that you are more familiar with with the opening. Playing with black you are pretty much forced to play certain moves in response for a while, and if you aren't, you are going to start dropping material soon. Beginners are much better at making threats than responding to them.
I think I had like 70% win percentage as white when I started out, and like 30% with black and it took a long time to even out. Even still I'm scoring much better with white than black, simply because I get to play openings I'm more familiar with and I know what kind of positions will arise. With black I'm more or less forced to limit my options based on what white does in the beginning.
Playing White vs. Playing Black
I suppose I haven't learned anything. However, simply playing more has allowed me to better recognize traps being set by my opponent.
What "one mistake" are you referring to?
Can you give me any specific pointers on how to improve my openings, like something easy to internalize that will give me an immediate boost?
I wouldn't bother with Deirdre. He has some low self esteem issues that he is hopelessly trying to fix by bashing beginners in every other topic.
By the way, using phrases like "immediate boost" is like blood to the sharks. Everything in chess takes time and awful a lot of practice. There are no immediate boosts or shortcuts, it's just heck of a lot of practice, play and analyzing.
If I were IMBacon, I would share you his opening principles list. Regardless, the main point of the opening is to develop your pieces towards centre (where they have as much influence on the board as possible), don't move the same piece twice unless it really gains you something, castle early and often and connect your rooks. Check for opponents threats and respond accordingly, improve your worst placed piece and simple stuff like that. You don't really need to know openings to play a good opening, if you follow the classical principles.
Good luck!
https://www.chess.com/article/view/study-plan-directory
"... In order to maximize the benefits of [theory and practice], these two should be approached in a balanced manner. ... Play as many slow games (60 5 or preferably slower) as possible, ... The other side of improvement is theory. ... This can be reading books, taking lessons, watching videos, doing problems on software, etc. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627084053/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman19.pdf
"... If it’s instruction, you look for an author that addresses players at your level (buying something that’s too advanced won’t help you at all). This means that a classic book that is revered by many people might not be useful for you. ..." - IM Jeremy Silman (2015)
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-books-ever
Here are some reading possibilities that I often mention:
Simple Attacking Plans by Fred Wilson (2012)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090402/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review874.pdf
http://dev.jeremysilman.com/shop/pc/Simple-Attacking-Plans-77p3731.htm
Logical Chess: Move by Move by Irving Chernev (1957)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104437/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/logichess.pdf
The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played by Irving Chernev (1965)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/most-instructive-games-of-chess-ever-played/
Winning Chess by Irving Chernev and Fred Reinfeld (1948)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708093415/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review919.pdf
Back to Basics: Tactics by Dan Heisman (2007)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708233537/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review585.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-back-to-basics-tactics
Discovering Chess Openings by GM John Emms (2006)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627114655/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen91.pdf
Openings for Amateurs by Pete Tamburro (2014)
http://kenilworthian.blogspot.com/2014/05/review-of-pete-tamburros-openings-for.html
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/openings-for-amateurs/
https://www.mongoosepress.com/catalog/excerpts/openings_amateurs.pdf
Chess Endgames for Kids by Karsten Müller (2015)
https://chessbookreviews.wordpress.com/tag/chess-endgames-for-kids/
http://www.gambitbooks.com/pdfs/Chess_Endgames_for_Kids.pdf
A Guide to Chess Improvement by Dan Heisman (2010)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708105628/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review781.pdf
Studying Chess Made Easy by Andrew Soltis (2009)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708090448/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review750.pdf
Seirawan stuff:
http://seagaard.dk/review/eng/bo_beginner/ev_winning_chess.asp?KATID=BO&ID=BO-Beginner
http://www.nystar.com/tamarkin/review1.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627132508/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/hansen173.pdf
https://www.chess.com/article/view/book-review-winning-chess-endings
https://web.archive.org/web/20140708092617/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/review560.pdf
Hi.
I joined chess.com a few days ago and I checked my stats and game archive for the first time today. I was very surprised to see the huge difference in performance between playing white and playing black. On white I am 13-1 and on black I am 4-7-2. Is this norrmal? I didn't think the color really mattered unless it's top-level people playing.
There is no normal, only statistics and probability. If your odds of winning with white and black were equal, the likelihood that such a maldistribution of wins and losses is merely random chance is 0.26%. So it is overwhelmingly likely that this is a real phenomenon, with 99.8% confidence we can conclude that you are less likely to win with black. Now, whether this deviates significantly from others at your level, we'd need to know the overall win/loss rate for black versus white at your level. This is probably known, but not by me. Regardless, unless the difference is huge, which I doubt, the conclusion will be the same.
So while I agree with all those who have mentioned the weaknesses of your play overall, still there is something about playing black that is giving you trouble beyond the usual tactical errors and blunders that plague us all. Perhaps you are disproportionately skilled at your chosen white openings for your level?
Same here. 24-9-2 vs 15-17-5 (I win about 70% of my games playing white vs 40% black), I will never understand this.
Your games are full of blunders , you never learn something from your games(same mistakes repeated over and over again) but scoring bad with black is what you can't understand. Everything else is understandable.
Total lack of common sense in chess players never ceazes to amaze me.
>I can't understand something, therefore I must know everything else
I honestly wasn't expecting something half as dumb as your post. Anyway, I started chess a few weeks ago and fixing blunders can't be done overnight, it requires significant repetition. You leave pieces hanging too and I'm pretty sure you didn't start a week ago.