meh if chess is solved then people will still play. people still play checkers, tic tac toe, connect four and many other games that have been solved.
i prefer playing as black, purely because im more comfortable in defence, sitting and waiting to ounce unexpectedly.
its like in a fist fight i supose but you know the other guy is going to punch first, they punch and you can dodge left right backwards or anywhere inbetween. they have to move to counter your defence, even though they moved first.
in my study, i had read in chess book, that white is a birthright of attack! but not problem that reason, because black can steal the attack! it is called COUNTER ATTACK! although first work black player it is his job to defense first.
There is a saying white plays to win and black plays to tie.
If the player is good white always wins.
In the Appendix of my article on "Pairwise comparison of chess opening variations" I made 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
Your comments greatly appreciated.
At grandmaster level, white is considered to have an advantage, because if he needs a lifeless draw, there are a lot of lines where he can force it. Black usually doesn't have that option.
Whites first move advantage-Der Zugzwang Gegenstück mit weniger schweren cosequences für Zugzwang als die Gegen Pendant wenn weiße Stücke unvollkommen.
Translation-The Zugzwang counterpart with less severe consequences for black than the Zungzwang counterpart's counterpart (black's move) if white plays imperfectly.
Hey, I try to win whatever colour I am - and I tend to play each colour 50% of the time. Colour is only a useful reference because we see in degrees of fractured sunlight - don't make it a philosophical argument. If we saw using heat signatures (as in Predator - the moveie?) the chessmen would be at different temperatures. Let's Just enjoy the game! In fact chess should be a means of getting people together. How do you know what race, colour, religion, gender, etc, I am by just seeing my 'code name' across a virtual chessboard? Come on you guys!!