starting with white

Did something change with this site?  Whenever I started my own game I would be white...now Im always black.  I havent changed any settings or anything...anyone have a clue?

Live chess has disabled choosing your colour. The system awards colours based on the colours you last had, and the ones your opponent had in his last game.

This is stupid...i mite have to find a new site cause I know nothing about playing with black.

Well then, learn.

When you started, you knew nothing about playing with white.

Now im gonna destroy my already lousy rating playing with black.

Well, if playing with black is such a disadvantage, don't you think it was unfair to others when you played only white?

Besides, at the 1000 level, tempos are easily gained and lost. The black-white advantage is far from significant at your level.

The point is we should have the choice....i never had a problem finding people that wanted black.  They shouldnt decide for us...Im the decider afterall.

I rarely used it, but will admit that it's silly to have that option taken away. Was live chess suddenly not being used because nobody would play against white?

multiple threads on this already. i think it's a horrible idea. you should be able to choose to play a certain color if you want. people are already pretty annoyed with this change.

if not specified, then the computer can randomly designate or have it based on you and your opponents previous games. however, i should be able to practice using either color if i want. if that's a problem with you, then don't accept my challenge.

i personally never select a specific color, but i totally think one should be able to do so. chess.com better change this back soon.

I have a hard time taking this thread seriously. You will never get anywhere in chess if you can only play one colour. In OTB or even online tournaments, you never get to choose. So just suck it up and learn to play the black pieces. With a rating of 1000 or so it won't matter anyway as you or your opponents will probably hang something in the first 10 moves. Seriously, some of the things posted on these forums...

 I agree. I mean, if you actually tryed playing black, you might do better. ractice doesn't make perfect, but it makes positive progress.

WTF am i black everytime?  Is it gonna stick me with black for the next 1000 games to even out my prior games?

I agree with you generally, but it was nice to be able to choose color to practice or learn a new opening. I used it just as, if not more often, to play as black to practice my defenses.

On one of the other threads, one of the staff mentioned that the decision to remove the option was based on some people skewing the ratings by playing an overwhelming majority of games as one color (presumably white) in rated games. While practicing openings is a legitimate use of selecting color, artificially inflating one's rating is not.

Perhaps a compromise solution for chess.com would be to allow color selection in unrated games, but ban it in rated games.

One solution for the player who wants to gain ratings points is to get better with the black pieces. Over the board, it is unlikely to be able to find one or more players willing to play black all the time so that you can pummel him or them incessantly with white, and in otb tournaments, you will have no choice of color. Why not suck it up, learn some defenses, improve your game, and eventually experience the joy of pummeling an opponent with the black pieces? Once you become equally comfortable on either side of the board, chess becomes more enjoyable.

As to who has really has the right to decide ... who owns this site, anyway? Random selection is fair to both players. Apart from being a minor inconvenience to those wanting to use the site to practice an opening, what's the big deal?

I think it is not a good idea , Becouse if any one want to play by white he can create challenge by himself to be white , also some people like to play by black they can choose between the others , in my opinion the person who made this rule have to sleep well or leave us to enjoy in this site ...................

In total agreement, Ilike white and can't play!

What strikes me most is that 75% of "only-white" players are just too low rated (i.e. under 1300) for them to feel a real difference. The only thing is they want to avoid openings they do not know, but even on 1.e4 they are unusual answers.

And, of course, 10 % of "only-whites" begin by g2 or b2 or this kind of stupid tricks.

In chess you have to learn to play both of the sides of the chessboard. I personnaly prefer black for non-tournaments games, because you learn more, but that's my opinion.

However, the fact people will now be condemned to eternally playing black isn't great. Maybe chess.com should put down the game color counters to zero, now that rules have changed ? It would still give justice in random colors.

Tigranlinflexible,

they are not "doomed" to play black eternally.

the 'computer' doing the pairings and choosing colors, looks back at the last ten games played, equalizes to the extent possible within that scale (the last ten games for each), and assigns colors as equally as possible.

no one is doomed to play 2000 games with black in a row, although there are some who have played over 2000 games with white, and less than 20 with black.

they can also challenge individuals, and choose to play white, but they cannot set their operating settings to 'white only'.

Equality of playing as white or Black. Meaning equal amount of times

I was eventually going to dive into black when the time was right.  Ive only been playing 3 months and I wanted to learn my own way. 

I realize my rating is low but I was actually starting to play with 1300's + and now they pull this...I dont value my rating so much to impress anyone or reflect false ability...I value it to gauge my improvement and improvements equal motivation which keeps my striving to get better.  I could have slowly worked black in but instead I get it 9 outa 10 times. 

Its just not the sites job dictate what color someone uses or how they wanna learn and I see very little benefit in it for them or the players here.  It can only lose them players not gain them.