Chess, but it's even (1400+)

The standard game of chess as we know favours white. Across all rating levels, white scores better than black, and thus it is an advantage to start a chess game with white rather than with black. But, what if, despite having the advantage of the first move, white was no better than black?

I present to you, 'Chess, but it's even' where the only change I made from the standard starting position was to swap the b8 knight and the f8 bishop and suddenly, the evaluation is 0.00 at depth 30 for both stockfish 17.1 and Torch 2. 

Black's position is improved as the bishops are harmonized and pointing towards white's kingside while the 2 knights could potentially provide a better shelter for black's king if black chooses to castle kingside. Suddenly, having the first move is no longer an advantage.

Who will come out on top once we level the playing field?

This position has shown to be very promising in the few games that have been played in it so far, but it has been tested out over the board and online against strong players and it provides very interesting games – and although white so far is still winning a little more than black, white’s first move advantage is not felt anymore, which is huge. Below is a list of suggested openings from standard chess that white and black can try which work with black’s adjusted setup (tested with stockfish 17.1, others work too, but these are the openings which keep the evaluation at less than +0.1 for white):

Other openings not listed above are still good, just offer +0.10 or higher for white such as Sicillian, Caro-Kann, Petrov, Dutch, etc. A few openings such as London system (due to Ne6 or Ng6), French (due to blocking dark squared bishop), 1. e4 e5. 2. Bc4 (due to c6 d5 ideas by black) are not so good for black, but most are still playable. Some openings like the Nimzo, King’s Indian, etc. Are not playable due to the positioning of the pieces.

To play in the true spirit of this position, black would probably choose one of the options from the table above as these openings would truly fit the theme of ‘Chess, but it’s even’ as these openings are truly even. Because black is already even in this position, perhaps there is less incentive to play a diverse range of openings, because black has already equalized, so offbeat openings would be playing from a worse off position while the starting position is already even. In standard chess, black is playing from behind in any opening, so black might have a greater incentive to play offbeat openings to avoid some of the main opening where black tries to equalize and not as much to win. In ‘Chess but it’s even’, black can choose any opening and play for the win, or at least that is the hope of the position.

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