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Subject: Re: simple explanation for both games

Author: Jeremiah Penery

Date: 23:09:35 01/24/00

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On January 25, 2000 at 01:58:20, Peter Kappler wrote:

>On January 25, 2000 at 01:13:23, Jeremiah Penery wrote:
>
>>On January 24, 2000 at 23:15:27, Peter Kappler wrote:
>>
>>>> Kasparov Allowing
>>>>a position with really no complications and allows an easy draw to Lputian a
>>>>2605!  Lputian is so low rated that he's almost in a category were Kasp probably
>>>>hasn't played against in 10 years, a sub 2600 player(2500s).   It could happen
>>>>but both in one day!
>>>
>>>You are underestimating the advantage of playing the White pieces at this >level.
>>
>>But when was the last time Kasparov lost with black? :) I remember the Hoogovens
>>tournament last year, where he won every(?) game he played with black, but kept
>>drawing with white.  It was quite amazing.
>>
>>I think the whole 'advantage' of playing the white pieces is purely
>>psychological.  I think Kasparov once speculated that white may be in zugzwang
>>in the opening position.  (Please, someone, if you can either confirm or refute
>>these 'facts' I'm presenting, do so. :)
>
>
>It's a *very* significant advantage, especially at the super-GM level.

Well, psychological advantages can be some of the biggest ones. :)
Just look at Kasparov.  He escaped with a draw from Adams the other day, and
this probably had as much to do with psychology as anything.

I'm trying to speculate from an omniscient point of view - I think if the entire
game-tree could somehow be searched/traversed, it would be found that white has
no _real_ advantage.

>I just verified this using ChessBase.  I searched on all games in which both
>players were rated above 2550 FIDE.  Out of 21376 games, White won 6035, Black
>won 3648, and 11689 were draws.
>
>Performance rating for white = 2654
>Performance rating for black = 2575
>
>So playing the White pieces is worth 79 rating points.

My stance is really more of a guess, and probably one that will never be proven
right or wrong. :)



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