Random play makes me go 'thank you, bye'

When I want to work on a particular opening, I play both sides of it, that way I learn the tactics and strategies that EACH player should be using.  I may know the strategies inherent in the white side of the King's Gambit, but if I don't know what black is trying to do just as well as I know the white side, then I'm going to have a hard time playing against people that know both sides well.

Some time ago, I decided I wanted to see if I like the Benko Gambit as a response to 1. d4.  So I created a tournament for it and played several games with both sides (and it is still going on).  This way, I am becoming familiar with both how to play the Benko Gambit as well as what I can expect from my opponents who attempt to thwart me; because I know what I used - what worked and what didn't - I know what to expect from my opponents.  Now, I'm not a 1. d4 player, so I probably will not play the white side of a Benko Gambit in any serious play, but it is vital that I understand what the white side is trying to achieve.  The best way to get that is to play the white side, even though the Benko Gambit is a black-side opening.

We know it's frustrating that people can no longer freely choose which color they play. If you really don't like playing Black that much, instead of heaping criticism after criticism, I think it is more important for the rest of us as fellow chess.com players to help you figure out why you have this issue. If one person isn't having fun, then others won't have as much fun either and it hurts everybody.

So, why exactly do you have problems playing Black? Like many of the people who have posted on this thread, I think everyone should be able to play chess with either color. If you at least let us try to help you with this problem, and afterward you still have these kinds of issues, then I at least will leave you alone.

Bye bye.......have a try with dices and have fun

It's called Wussy Chess. Maybe you can hit Yoko up for a game.

lol nice pic goldendog..

I make a sincere offer to play some unrated games as black. I even went as far as setting up such a game. He rejected it. I can only conclude that he wants to whine about the issue. He does not want to improve his chess game.

Where are the children's parent ?, those kids deserve a thick ear.  

Personally, I prefer starting with bright green, but nobody listons to me either.

What wrong with PINK ?

Actually, I thought about saying that, but decided to go with green.

Environment friendly ? good idea then I'll go for blue for the sky... uh-oh. 

As a player who willingly (and often) chose to play players who specifically chose to play against those who wanted to be white online, I am curious of this.

The staff is deciding what is best for the community (note still not directly what the community wants). This has been sorted down to two choices of the staff:

1) Allow players to choose what color they want.

2) Don't allow players to choose what color they want.

My reasoning for it is this:

Why not let people choose their color?

Scenario A: If they want white and no one at the time wants black, well they willingly accept in not playing and both people willingly lose out of the experience. The players can't be upset because they both made their own choice. The players aren't playing, but they can't be upset, so at least are content.

Scenario B: If someone doesn't mind, both players are satisfied. The players (community) are happy.

These scenarios are only involving when people are allowed to choose. So what benefits come from being allowed this right?

-Learning an opening

-Anything else that can be mentioned seems to be another way of restating learning an opening

The negative aspects of the right to choose color:

-Not playing because no one wants to be black (which I have already stated the community/players can't be upset because they are making their own choice).

Following this right, as long as it continues the situation will end up with 1) Some players only playing white (who will find many a day where it is difficult to find players to play against) and 2) The majority of players who want to improve who will play both sides.

------------------------

We can look at it another way:

The player who only wants to play as white is FORCING others to play as black. What is the result from this? At the least, a dislike in being required to play as black.

How much different is it that you (and the staff) is FORCING players to play as a specific color?

It boils down to people don't like being told what to do and they want to make their own choices. People who make poor choices (like only playing white) will face the consequences of such poor choices (difficulty in finding players to play).

I say all this with good intentions. I personally don't care one way or another if I'm forced or not, but that's because I never chose a color to begin with (except when I was trying to learn the idea of an opening - Hippo specifically ).

Regardless of this decision the staff has dictated, I commend them for providing the site with the benefits it has and hope they continue in making decisions that encourage satisfaction for its players.

Derek R

Must be a difficult change to make. But in the long-term it's for the better really.

Isn't chess about long-term thinking? :)

Better for gifted/non-beginner players. I'm not learning well under the new system. I gave it a try and it takes me out of it for both colors.

WaterAlch, thank you for the support. I'm wondering how dogmatism and a follow the leader mindset affects so many of the trollish comments on this thread and hardly anyone makes a serious discussion attempt into what makes them feel that the arguments raised here or the suggestion to examine what the community really wants are irrelevant.

p.s. brianb42, thanks for the offer but I play live games. Btw, people in Israel do sleep sometimes so I didn't reject the offer at the time you proclaimed such a thing.

Go buy chessmaster 9000 or a similar program to study openings on.  You can select your color and even force the computer to play an opening line that you want to work on.  When you have gotten the basics down in one line you can then have the computer play an alternate line and explore that for awhile.  then you could switch colors and play the same opening from the other vantage point and gain even more knowledge that way.

the other thing to do, and this is beating a dead horse as this advice appears in almost every topic, is to spend some time waorking tactics over and over as pattern recognition is vital.

Best of luck to you.

Ret,

You're so repetative that its bothersome. If you're so certain on what the "the community concensus is" what is the reasoning of rejecting a poll so we can see for ourselves who wants what?

We all know what you want already. Don't speak for everyone who hasn't commented on this thread.

p.s. there isn't even a 100% consensus on this thread... but why argue with the facts when you can assert them repeatedly.

another game, lets turn the board round

>:)