Seems like I play better with black, does this say something about my style or weaknesses?

Whenever I play black I seem to be able to hold my own pretty well against decently rated players but when I play white I get my butt handed to me pretty often no matter the rating. What weakness or strength does this indicate in a player? What if it were vice versa, and was better with white than black? Any insight into this topic is appreciated.

That is peculiar.  Perhaps you just haven't found an opening that suits your style as white yet.  What openings do you play, anyway?  If you win with the French, that would say a lot  

Good topic.  I think my state of mind shifts between the two.  Probably more careful with black.  Prefer asymmetry with black. 

I could mean you're good at waiting and exploiting mistakes others make, but are not good at executing a plan of your own.  Just a guess.

Yeah, I agree about the more careful and would add reactionary for me. It just seems easier to see what white is trying to do and counter act it, waiting for a mistake. But when I am white, I have trouble "creating" an opening or trap. Seems to burden my playing.  My strongest opening is the Queens Pawn, but I think that's because its the only one I have put any serious time studying.

What opens do you like to play as black?

i may be the same way. after 54 games, my winning percentage is 14 pts higher with black than white.  maybe it's just variance over a small sample size, but i feel like i am better at exploiting my opponents errors than "attacking".

 I like the sicilian the most right now.

I also play better -- much better -- with black than with white.  I think it has to do with the fact that we play better when responding to what someone else is doing, rather than coming up with something to do on our own.  Counterpunching, so to speak.

You probably just know your openings better as black. Also our openings as black tend to be riskier than with white since we start off the game with a disadvantage we have to strive to create imbalances and complications...creating opportunities for our opponents to make mistakes. Openings with white tend to give us a slight advantage, but I find that coming up with a concrete plan when our only advantage is "slightly more space" is harder than coming up with counterplay.

Perhaps you like your chess like you like your coffee

I think I play better as black. I utilize the Caro-Kann and I love Benko's Gambit, covering pretty much any e4 or d4 opening by white. Though I'm not bad as white, I think I'm a more of a solid player as black.

it's no surprise. familiarity may have a lot to do with it.

ncpharaoh: haha!

i agree. i am much more comfortable playing the black pieces. as black i play the french or slav, and as white i mostly play 1.c4. Someone above typed, "If you win with the French, that would say a lot." Why, and what does it say?

And if "it has to do with the fact that we play better when responding to what someone else is doing, rather than coming up with something to do on our own.  Counterpunching..." is true, is 1.Nf3 best for White?

THanks.

You are better at solving problems than causing them.

hey paul211:

Sorry, my stats on this website are somewhat misleading. I have played hundreds and hundreds of games against the computer on this site because I didn't want to start playing humans right away and embarass myself. I have just recently gotten to a point where I can beat medium consistantly and get to a draw or win the hard occassionally. Out of those, I played white almost exclusively thinking that I should focus on one side and learn it before going onto the other. Plus, my good friend who is the only other live person I play in person always prefers to be black so I wanted to get better to beat him as well. As it is, I played all those games against lil chess partner as white, but it seemed when I played black against the computer the wins came easier or at least more frequently.

As for the rest of the stats, thank you for looking into them on a personally specific level. I appreciate your help. I was just wondering if anyone else had the same sense and to see what kind of players prefer white over black or vice versa. I personally prefer to play white but find it harder to keep control of the game because instead of looking for a mistake I am trying to not make a mistake, at least thats what it seems like.