Talk:First-move advantage in chess/Archive 3

Chess has two players, White and Black
I have hatted the long, tedious, bad-faith discussions below now that the main problem editors have been blocked as sock-puppets. --JBL (talk) 15:55, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

If the article has a section on perfect play, then it should explain the status of play for both White and Black (i.e. who wins, or a draw, or unknown). To not mention this is a serious deficiency in the article. I've elaborated slightly in this respect with references. (The other option is to remove any discussion of perfect play, since that is not the main theme of the article anyway).—MeixiangKazuki (talk) 07:34, 31 December 2017 (UTC)
 * It has been explained many times that Stack Exchange is not a reliable source, consisting as it does of user generated content, yet you continue to edit war and attempt to insert it into the article. It is unclear what the relevance of your other source (the Ph. D. paper by Victor Allis) is; I have examined it and see nowhere that it addresses the question of what the result of a perfectly played game of chess would be. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 08:29, 31 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Not only that, MeixiangKazuki's post above makes no sense. (He says discussion of the result of perfect play is missing from the article, that's untrue, then he says to remove said discussion.) --IHTS (talk) 11:32, 31 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Please read my comments again carefully. It reads, "If the article has a section on perfect play, then it should explain the status of play for both White and Black..." and also "The other option is to...". It does not say what you purport it to say. Your work on this article is certainly not being conducted in good faith.—MeixiangKazuki (talk) 13:48, 31 December 2017 (UTC)


 * The article Solving chess is actually more directly related to the topic of perfect play. In that article, the very first sentence in the lead paragraph states "Solving chess means finding an optimal strategy for playing chess, i.e. one by which one of the players (White or Black) can always force a victory, or both can force a draw." (bolding added)


 * Neither player (White or Black) is excluded from the article there, and there is no debate about it. It is properly sourced, as I have also properly sourced it here.


 * Since Solving chess is the prime article which discusses perfect play, the content in this article (on this subject) should match the text there (but perhaps be stated more concisely), and without elaboration.


 * Note: this discussion continues in the next section "Yet another disruptive edit"—LithiumFlash (talk) 06:33, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

Yet another disruptive edit
For goodness sake please stop inserting Stack Exchange! We do not source anything to forums or wikis per WP:UGC. Also, "consensus among many" is a tautology. Consensus does not mean unanimity, it means a clear majority. It is an accurate statement that the consensus among strong players and theorists is that a perfectly played game of chess would end in a draw. The Allis source does not address this question, and it's unclear whether the Nowakowski source does either (no page references are provided). Only the Shannon paper is relevant, and on page 3 he agrees that the game is most likely a draw. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 00:59, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes, we have tried to explain that repeatedly but they won't listen. Also do not insert new claims into the lede as the lede must summarize the most important points from the body of the article.  Read MOS:LEDE and note its important instructions, including "Apart from basic facts, significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article."  The issue that you seem to have with the article hardly qualifies as one of the "most important points", so I don't think it belongs in the lede anyway.
 * Also these disruptive edits to the lede have now been reverted by three five [updated to be accurate as of 1 Jan 2018] different editors. At this point I think if you want to change the lede your best approach would be to propose the change you think should be made on this talk page and explain why you think it would improve the article, then see if other editors have any comment on the change before you edit the article.  The edits have been kind of all over the place.  First the claim on this talk page that "the statistics can be interpreted a different way" (that White doesn't have an advantage, which is an idiotic argument), then repeated edits that seemed to dispute the idea that the consensus view is that chess is probably a draw, then repeated edits added stack exchange as a reference even though it isn't a WP:RS, then an "unreliable sources" tag was added to the article even though no unreliable sources were identified, and finally it seems that there's some attempt to explain what "perfect play" means again using stack exchange as a reference (although I'm actually not sure what the point of the recent edits is supposed to be).  Quale (talk) 05:47, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Also Shannon's opinion on whether chess is most likely a draw isn't of very great import. Shannon wasn't a strong chess player and has no reputation in chess theory.  Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Fischer, Kasparov, etc., have that covered and we don't need more sources in favor of this proposition unless they are recognized as world championship strength or noted experts in chess theory.  Quale (talk) 05:58, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The Stack-Exchange is not user-generated open forum. It is a moderated forum written by mathematicians and computer scientists who have established themselves to have a good reputation in their field. It is subject to peer-review, and unsubstantiated material is removed from their repository.—MeixiangKazuki (talk) 06:10, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You could try raising this at the Reliable Source Noticeboard, but I'm pretty sure you'd get the same answer as last time. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 07:46, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * See section above "Chess has two players, White and Black" for necessity of including status of both players in the game of chess when discussing perfect play.—LithiumFlash (talk) 15:35, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

You still haven't addressed the point - how is stackexchange a reliable source? Galobtter (pingó mió) 15:43, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I support and agree with what has been already said (see above). It is a forum moderated by experts, and receives significant review by peers in the field. Unreliable information is quicky removed from stated conclusions. On this topic, it supports what other sources already say, but is germane because it often presents the most-up-to-date knowledge in regards to the topic at hand. Also, in this Wiki article, it is not being used as the sole citation - it supplements the others.—LithiumFlash (talk) 15:51, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Regardless of the fact that the accepted answer essentially says "I've never heard of it" therefore it must not exist, and one of the comments quotes wikipedia, how does that stackexchange even support the statement? Galobtter (pingó mió) 15:59, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Which statement are you referring to?—LithiumFlash (talk) 16:04, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The statement that chess theorians have long debated etc which you added black wins to. Galobtter (pingó mió) 16:23, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * To be clear, I am not supporting text that says "Black wins in chess". I am supporting text that says it has not been answered which side wins in a game of perfect play. The article Solving chess says it pretty well in its opening paragraph:


 * "Solving chess means finding an optimal strategy for playing chess, i.e. one by which one of the players (White or Black) can always force a victory, or both can force a draw...No complete solution...is known, nor is it expected that chess will be solved in the near future."


 * These opening statments are not regarded as dubious, and have not been the subject of debate at Solving chess.

There's a difference between that and saying that they have long-debated on that. Galobtter (pingó mió) 17:01, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I actually don't think it's important which set of references we included here. Stack exchange is fine but can be excluded if some have an issue with it. But any statements that say only White can win in a perfect game should not be left standing in this article because that has not been proven anywhere.—LithiumFlash (talk) 16:41, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The article on solving chess is not a reliable source. It actually cites stackexchange (though later). Also, there's a difference between black possibly winning and it being a long-standing debate, which is what your sentence says. Find some source. Then add. Galobtter (pingó mió) 16:44, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Claude Shannon in his paper makes it crystal clear that he considers a possible win by either side, then follows by concluding that we don't know the answer. His paper is from 1950, and to my knowledge nothing has changed the conclusion. If his paper considers that either side can possibly win, then so should this article.—LithiumFlash (talk) 16:58, 1 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I am not arguing if anything is long-debated or not. I am expressing that both White and Black have been considered, and are still considered, to possibly be the winner of a perfect game. The article (Solving chess) says it this way:


 * "Solving chess means finding an optimal strategy for playing chess, i.e. one by which one of the players (White or Black) can always force a victory, or both can force a draw...No complete solution...is known, nor is it expected that chess will be solved in the near future."


 * It has been variously included in this article such as (which I propose):


 * Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether a perfectly played game is a win for White, draws, or wins for Black.


 * My proposed revisions do not make a change to the word "debate". That stands as is. Let me know if you have another preferred way to say this. The key is to not mislead readers into believing that only White can win.


 * If there are no other objections, I'll plan to revise the text as follows within a day or two:


 * current:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw"


 * new:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether a perfectly played game is a win for White, draws, or wins for Black."
 * —LithiumFlash (talk) 19:01, 1 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Sentence construction: "[...] is a win for White, a draw, or a win for Black." -or- "[...] wins for White, draws, or wins for Black." But what player of any note has ever debated whether a perfectly played game is a win for Black?? --IHTS (talk) 20:10, 1 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks for this comment, and makes good sense, I'll choose the later if it's ok with others. As for a reference to who is debating this, I am not changing that element. The references in the article now that show debate exists will be the same references that show debate exists after recasting the statement, and also the same references that support Black might be a win in the article Solving chess. (Shannon is one of many who announced that the problem is difficult to solve, and that all three game endings must be considered as possible with present knowledge )—LithiumFlash (talk) 21:17, 1 January 2018 (UTC)


 * This is a chess article, not a mathematics or computer science article. The vast majority of chess players believe it is a draw, i.e. there is a consensus that it is a draw; a small number have argued that it is a win for White but this is not the generally accepted view. No chess player has to my knowledge seriously argued that the game is a forced win for Black, and those who have even considered the possibility have quickly dismissed it. There is, then, no debate among chess players whether the game might be a win for Black; that is a purely theoretical possibility for the computer scientists to and mathematicians to deal with. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 22:17, 1 January 2018 (UTC)


 * As an experiment, I answered a question anonymously at Stack Exchange, didn't even register. I got upvoted and am now considered a "teacher" there. So it's basically like reddit or urban dictionary. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 22:42, 1 January 2018 (UTC)


 * The second paragraph in this article says "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides...". Therefore, the remainder of the statement must be within the context of "perfect play" which is a mathematical concept (studied in the context of Game theory). Mathematical problems aren't solved by what "The vast majority of chess players believe". Our two options is either to correct the statement, or to change it so that the conclusion is explained not within the scope of perfect play. (i.e. "many players believe that 'expert' play leads more often to a win by White").—LithiumFlash (talk) 23:34, 1 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Wrong again. Perfect play is both a mathematical concept and a very simple common sense concept, and at this point the strongest chess players are best equipped to evaluate whether chess is likely to be drawn with perfect play or not.   Someday increases in computing power or more advanced mathematical techniques might allow chess to be solved and then game theory will decide, but that isn't part of this article, it belongs in the Solving chess article instead.  It most definitely doesn't belong in the lead of this article.  Also your earlier claim that stack exchange is moderated by experts is dead wrong.  In fact it is a form of crowd sourcing using site reputation and self-moderation by user voting.  Stack exchange is a quintessential example of a user generated content site that fails Wikipedia requirements to be reliable source. Quale (talk) 03:57, 2 January 2018 (UTC)


 * "...the strongest chess players are best equipped to evaluate whether chess is likely to be drawn with perfect play or not." That's not correct and it's irrelevant anyway. The result of perfect play isn't determined by anyone's opinion. Claude Shannon in his paper made it very clear that any ending (White wins, Black wins, or draw) must be considered as the possible result of perfect play. There is no academic or scholarly paper that has changed that conclusion. People's opinions also do not change that conclusion - not even chess player's opinions.
 * If you'd like to remove the comments about perfect play from the lead in this article that is perfectly ok with me. I agree it doesn't have a close connection with a first-move advantage in actual game-play (and no references say so). It's also better to say nothing, than to include it and be incorrect and/or misleading which is how it currently stands.—LithiumFlash (talk) 07:48, 2 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Since by necessity the article discusses likelihood rather than certainty, the opinion of the strongest chess players is highly relevant to this article. No one knows the outcome of a perfectly played game of chess with certainty, but the strongest chess players have a better claim to assessing the odds than do mathematicians.  The article never claims that with perfect play the outcome is a draw.  The article claims that the consensus among the strongest players is chess is likely to be a draw.  This is true statement about the expressed opinions of the strongest players and theoreticians.
 * I also don't see any incorrect statements in this article, and I don't see that you've identified any incorrect statements either. Unfortunately you are trying to add them to the article.  The article says, "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."  You are correct that it is possible that perfect play would result in a win for Black, but since chess players and theoreticians have not long debated that possibility (or even debated it at all, as far as I know), the statement is correct.  You tried to amend the sentence to claim that there has been a long debate among chess players whether Black wins, which is absolutely and categorically false.  It's ironic that you complained that the article had "unreliable sources" when the only unreliable source was stack exchange, which you put in the article repeatedly and it had to be reverted.  In further irony you now complain about false statements, when again you are the one who added the false statement, and it also had to be reverted.  If you can't "improve" the article without adding impermissible sources or false statements, then maybe you should leave it alone.  I don't think the issue is really that the article is inaccurate, the issue seems to be that you would have written a different article.  In other words, the article doesn't say what you want it to say.  There is an article about solving chess that I've pointed you to repeatedly; maybe you should look at it to see if you can improve it.  (But please don't cite stack exchange as a reference.)  Quale (talk) 00:32, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * The article currently has this statement in the lead paragraph:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."
 * It neglects the player taking the Black pieces. But respected scholars and mathematicians do not neglect the Black pieces. Check this reference or any newer scholarly article on the topic. The statement in the article is misleading at best, or just plain wrong. My preference is to fix the statement, but another option is to recast the sentence so that it is not in the context of perfect play.—LithiumFlash (talk) 04:29, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

This is just going round in circles. Our options are: 222.153.250.135 (talk) 06:23, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * (1) concedes that the consensus is against them and moves on
 * (2) A request for comment is raised
 * (3) Dispute resolution procedings are initiated.


 * (2) or (3) are fine with me. Thanks for your attention.—LithiumFlash (talk) 06:27, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I suggest you initiate one of these processes yourself. I personally have no inclination to do so. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 06:32, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * No thanks. If no one is inclined to do that then another option (4) is we can resolve the issue here. The status as it stands is that the article currently has this statement in the lead paragraph:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."
 * It neglects the player taking the Black pieces. Respected scholars and mathematicians do not neglect the Black pieces. Editors of this article interested in correcting this statement should familiarize themselves with the academic literature on this topic such as this. The statement in the article is misleading at best, or just plain wrong. The options are to fix the statement in the article, or to recast the sentence so that it is not in the context of perfect play.—LithiumFlash (talk) 07:03, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The key part is long debated. Perhaps add seperately that black win has been slightly considered, but not there. Galobtter (pingó mió) 07:06, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Option (4) has been attempted but has run into a brick wall. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 07:22, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks Galobtter. I think that is a good suggestion, and it doesn't bother me at all whether we say "debated" or "long debated". I propose this:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have debated whether a perfectly played game is a win for White, a draw, or a win for Black."
 * This is concise, accurate, and supported by references, including the Shannon paper which I will add as a reference.
 * Any further elaboration in the body of the article is fine with me. Can we find consensus on this?—LithiumFlash (talk) 08:25, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Nope. No chess player believes that the game could possibly be a forced win for Black. Take the twin prime proposition - is there an infinite number of twin primes? Mathematicians will say "almost certainly yes", yet it has not been proven. So how can they be so sure? Because they know their field. Their intuition on the question is almost certainly correct. Likewise chess players intuitively know that the game could not possibly be a forced win for black, even if the game theorists and computer scientists insist that it has not been disproven. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm done with this discussion. Either raise a RFC or DR process or let it go. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 08:44, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia articles should not contain original research (WP:NOR). Even if your opinion doesn't match that of scholarly articles, it should not be included within the text of Wikipedia articles. (I'll continue to support work on this article with other interested editors while you have excused yourself from the discussion).—LithiumFlash (talk) 14:14, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * No. Changing "long debated" to "debated" robs the lead sentence of its meaning. The sentence reflects a predominant fact (helping to "establish context" & "explain why the topic is notable"), the suggestion to leave it alone & add text to body mentioning possibility of forced win for Black is all about WP:DUE. It is *you* who is inserting a ghost that the sentence is "misleading" or "false", as a function of your own POV the article must somehow be equivalent to Solving chess article, which was already pointed out to you. --IHTS (talk) 03:37, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * @LithiumFlash: You have not identified any original research in the article, and you are wrong when you claim that that sentence is incorrect. I've already explained why that claim is correct and supported by the sources cited in the article, and I don't think I have anything more to say about it.  If this continues to be an edit warring situation, we will probably get administrators involved and sanctions may result.  I think this discussion has reached its useful end and your best options those suggested by 222.153.250.135: either drop the stick or try WP:RFC.  Quale (talk) 03:47, 4 January 2018 (UTC)


 * My note about original research was in reference to the comment by 222.153.250.135 where it appeared material was being synthesized on this talk page as an attempt to justify misleading text to remain in the article (refer to guidelines for this Talk page). My concern is this sentences which is in the lead:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."
 * (note that this statement currently has no references attached to it)
 * Now compare the text to what Shannon and Allis say in these references. There is an important and fundamental difference: academic scholars do not ignore the player with the Black pieces. But the sentence in our article does ignore the player with the Black pieces. I am not attempting to insert my own POV into the article. I am attempting to correct a sentence in the article (which currently is not referenced), and updating it to match substantiated knowledge which is supported by academic references.—LithiumFlash (talk) 04:45, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The sentence does not need "correcting". Sentences in the lead do not need references. Your questionable addition ("substantiated knowledge"!?) is material mention appropriate for the body proper, not the lead, based on WP:UNDUE. --IHTS (talk) 05:17, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * But the lead does not match the body proper. The body has text about all three possible game endings. The lead only mentions two of them.—LithiumFlash (talk) 05:58, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You don't understand the mission of the lead. (It summarizes major points. This is not a major point.) --IHTS (talk) 06:30, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Agreed but it also has to be correct, and it has to match the body of the article. I'm not the only editor to notice a serious discrepency. Check the topic above "The Lede v The Article...". Not only is there a discrepency, but the lead makes a declarative statement which is wrong. To mention it again the article currently has this statement in the lead paragraph:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."
 * It neglects the player taking the Black pieces. But respected scholars and mathematicians do not neglect the Black pieces. Check these references or any newer scholarly article on the topic. The statement in the article is wrong. My preference is to fix the statement, but another option is to recast the sentence so that it is not in the context of perfect play.—LithiumFlash (talk) 14:26, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Quale's right; discussion's toast. --IHTS (talk) 19:18, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I assume this means arguments against my last post have been discontinued. I have not seen anything that discredits it. I plan to continue working on this, perhaps in the middle of next week.—LithiumFlash (talk) 02:42, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You assume incorrectly. You're wrong about the article (which also is not about solving chess, we have another article about that), and all objections to your edits stand.  But we're not covering any new ground, and other editor's patience has been exhausted.  If you persist in further edits of the same nature I may ask for the assistance of an administrator.  But it should be possible to edit the article without making two serious blunders you have been repeating so far, namely citing impermissible sources (stack exchange) and changing the verifiably true statement "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw" into an utterly false one: "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether a perfectly played game is a win for White, draws, or wins for Black".  Quale (talk) 04:16, 5 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I'm not requesting to add Stack Exchange as a reference. Please check my suggested edits above, which includes two references (neither of which is Stack Exchange), and appear at the bottom of this Talk page. I'm ok to exclude solving chess as a theme of this article - I think that's a good suggestion. In this case, the statement in the lead will need to be re-phrased to eliminate the context of "perfect play" (perfect play is derived from solving chess). Let me know if you have any ideas. If there are no suggestions, then I'll be happy to rephrase it in some way.—LithiumFlash (talk) 20:37, 5 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Initiate one of the processes mentioned or let it go. I encourage an uninvolved party to close this discussion. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 02:16, 6 January 2018 (UTC)


 * That is one option, and any editor is welcome (even encouraged) to do so. Another option is to address my point which (for clarity) I'll mention again here. The article currently has this statement in the lead paragraph:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."
 * It neglects the player taking the Black pieces. Respected scholars and mathematicians do not neglect the Black pieces. The statement in the article is misleading at best, or just plain wrong according to the best available academic literature. The options are to fix the statement in the article, or to recast the sentence so that it is not in the context of perfect play.—LithiumFlash (talk) 07:03, 3 January 2018 (UTC)—LithiumFlash (talk) 14:28, 6 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Initiate one of the processes mentioned or let it go. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 03:55, 7 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't believe any editor is in a position to tell other editors what to do. Articles are written based on consensus, which is arrived at by evaluating text based on the merits of reliable references.—LithiumFlash (talk) 07:05, 7 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The consensus on this talk page is against you, so it is not productive to continue to repeat the same argument that has been repeatedly debunked by several other editors. I don't think persisting in this course of action is going to get you anything.  If you try WP:RFC I suspect you won't get exactly what you want, but I think you have a good chance to get some change in the article.  It's just a suggestion, you don't have to do it.  Since you haven't paid much attention to anything anyone else has said here so far, I'm not surprised that you think you can "win" this dispute and demonstrate "consensus" simply by continually repeating the same incorrect claims over and over again until everyone else tires of pointing out your mistakes, allowing you to claim victory.  Unless you have something new to say, I'm done talking about it.  Quale (talk) 07:56, 7 January 2018 (UTC)
 * This article does have a problem in the lead. Also see (this reference), which is in First-player and second-player win (and can be added to this article) which makes it clear that there is study and debate as to whether chess is a win for White, a Draw, or a win for Black. Maybe just omit "perfect play" from the lead? MeixiangKazuki (talk) 21:09, 8 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The lead doesn't say that there is no study whether Black can win in chess, it says that chess players and [chess] theoreticians have debated whether White can force a win. (But in actual fact there is no study and debate whether Black can force a win in chess, and game theory offers nothing here.  Since the only possible outcomes of a game of chess are White victory, draw or Black victory, the game theory statement is very elementary and not very interesting, and no one has devoted any "study" to the possibility that Black can force a win beyond stating the obvious fact that there are three possible outcomes for a perfectly played game of chess and no one knows which is correct.  There certainly isn't any "debate" about it either, since the game theory result I just mentioned is a theorem, a mathematical fact not subject to debate.  So you and LithiumFlash are just wrong about this sentence and unable to let it go.)  So in my opinion the statement in the lead is 100% accurate and does not need to be fixed.  "Does not need to be fixed", however, does not preclude changing the wording if it improves the article.  I don't see how omitting "perfect play" would work, unless you and LithiumFlash would be satisfied with the essentially synonymous "best play".  Trying something slightly different, if the sentence started, "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether White's apparent initial advantage is sufficient to force a win, or whether the game is drawn [when? with best play]." doesn't seem to me to be better than what is there now.  In fact I think it reads a bit worse.  The sentence addressing this point in the body is fine, but I don't think it's better for the lead than what is there now.  (The article body says "Chess theorists have long debated how enduring White's initiative is and whether, if both sides play perfectly, the game should end in a win for White or a draw.")  Quale (talk) 07:56, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

The arguments to change the sentence in question are deeply wrongheaded, and the proposed SE sources for it are ridiculous, and consensus here is unambiguously opposed to both the sources and changing that sentence. There are undoubtedly other improvements that could be made to this article, and the two WP:IDHT should find something else to do with their time. --JBL (talk) 12:39, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Quale said this correctly and I appreciate this point: "Since the only possible outcomes of a game of chess are White victory, draw or Black victory, the game theory statement is very elementary..." Yet the lead currently mentions perfect play, and does not say this (a fact that we all seem to agree is "elementary"). I appreciate this comment, and now I think we can make progress on correcting the sentence. If I see no suggestions within a day or two then we can go with what has already been suggested above. MeixiangKazuki (talk) 15:45, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * No, the sentence is correct and does not need "correction." The proposed "correction" makes the sentence false.  The issue is handled correctly in the section Solving chess and should not be mentioned in the lead section. --JBL (talk) 16:01, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It is plain to see with a review of references that the statement is not correct. Here is the sentence:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw." (bolding added)
 * But we know with certainty that chess theoreticians Claude Shannon, Victor Allis, J. Uiterwijk, H.J. van den Herik, and other theoreticians have announced that chess is not solved and that the game could end in a win for White, a draw, or a win for Black.—LithiumFlash (talk) 19:31, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I don't know if having the same thing explained to you for a fifth time will help, but here goes. The following statements are all true:
 * There are three possible outcomes of any chess game, ergo a chess game with perfect play will end in one of the three outcomes.
 * The state of rigorously proved theorems about chess does not improve on this situation, in that none of the three possibilities can be ruled out at the level of rigorous proof.
 * There is abundant evidence (below the level of rigorous proof, but nevertheless extremely compelling) that perfect play will end in either a win for white or a draw.
 * There is a long history of debate about which of these two options (draw and win for white) is the true outcome of a perfectly played game.
 * Statement (2) is true but not interesting in light of statement (3). Statement (2) is given appropriate weight in this article, namely, it is mentioned once or twice in the body in an un-fussy way.  It has no business being in the lead section.  Statement (4) is interesting, and is related in a deep way to the topic of this article.  The alternative statement proposed (that there is a history of debate about which of three outcomes is the true outcome of perfect play) is false: no one ever debates this (because of statement (3)).
 * Even if this weren't a completely compelling argument, there are three other ways in which you and MeixiangKazuki are acting disruptively: you are editing the lead in a way that diverges from the body; you are adding references that do not support the sentences they are attached to; and you are continuing to make the same edits repeatedly despite a clear consensus against them. So please knock it off. --JBL (talk) 22:15, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Agree with points (1 - 4), but jumping from (1-4) to the sentence below (in the article) is a non sequitur.
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated whether, given perfect play by both sides, the game should end in a win for White, or a draw."
 * One way to correct the statement is to change it as follows:
 * "Chess players and theoreticians have long debated the result of perfect play. There is general agreement that such a game most likely would end in a win for White or be a draw, but neither result has been proven.
 * I do appreciate your replying in a logical and forthcoming way. Much other commentary on this page has not addressed the matter at hand, which of course makes improvements to the article more difficult to complete in an efficient way.—LithiumFlash (talk) 22:49, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The sentence in the lead is almost exactly the same as my sentence (4). Please stop.  --JBL (talk) 22:59, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Then let's use the one that won't cause confusion to readers.—LithiumFlash (talk) 23:36, 9 January 2018 (UTC)
 * You do not have consensus for any such change to the lead, in fact the consensus is not to change it in such a way as to alter the meaning. Any further change will result in you being reported to the Edit warring noticeboard and in view of previous warnings will most likely result in a block and possibly a topic ban. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 00:15, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I agree with the IP editor. --JBL (talk) 00:20, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Agree. Trying to fix what isn't broke has robbed the text of clarity & simplicity. --IHTS (talk) 05:41, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * There is too much credible good faith commentary here to even consider allowing the existing text to be in the article, especially when it contradicts the academic work in this field. Let's leave it out if and until there is consensus here. OhioOakTree (talk) 07:10, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Nonsense dialogue. (I propose article topic ban for editors displaying "This user is a mathematician" userbox on their User Talk. Also, note how users MeixiangKazuki & Lithium make identical argumentations, & both started editing this article on the same date [Merry Xmas].) --IHTS (talk) 07:36, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Unfair, User:Joel B. Lewis is a mathematician and he gets the point. (Yes I know you were kidding). Mathematicians and game theorists say that chess is unsolved, which essentially means they know nothing more about it than a 10 year old who just learned the moves. Regarding the other point, recent editing patterns on the article have indeed been suspicious. In the previous 2 years the page attracted only occasional gnome edits. Why are we only now getting 3 editors trying to push the same agenda? 222.153.250.135 (talk) 10:34, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * But JBL doesn't post a user box stating so on his user page, so that's different. (More kidding. ;) ) Notice how the IDHT pattern is also the same. Lack of clash in communication. An infinite loop. Software error. ABORT. --IHTS (talk) 10:59, 10 January 2018 (UTC)
 * The game theory template is also inappropriate. 222.153.250.135 (talk) 12:39, 10 January 2018 (UTC)

Almost nothing about computer chess? What a joke.
There's no reason for this pre-computer quotation and speculation. Let any good computer program have plenty of time per move, >15 minutes per move or whatever, and play itself to remove software biases. (The cited AlphaZero-Stockfish games were only 1 minute per move and are, therefore, irrelevant. Worse, it is fake news because (1) AlphaZero uses fast FPGAs (massive parallel computer) which could have run on the same hardware as Stockfish, just ~100x slower and (2) Stockfish wasn't really Stockfish but was, rather, a variant without an opening book!!)  Perhaps bypass or remove or regulate the "random code" typically there to make different openings and keep games interesting. If they are NOT all wins for white, then the first-move advantage does not allow wins. Period. Done. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jasontaylor7 (talk • contribs) 20:26, 12 December 2018 (UTC)


 * This page is not a forum for discussing the subject of the article. If you are aware of any sources that publish the results of experiments like the one you describe, that would be interesting and useful and could be added to the article; but if you just want to rant, Wikipedia is not the right venue.  --JBL (talk) 21:03, 12 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Larry Kaufman set Komodo and Leela Chess Zero on the opening in his recent book Kaufman's New Repertoire for Black and White. I put his conclusion in the article. Basically, White likely does not have a forced win, but if he begins 1.e4 and makes no mistakes he can consistently maintain the upper hand and force Black to be careful to hold a draw. Double sharp (talk) 12:51, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

Result for the pieces or players?
With the initiative, a player with white pieces can keep the opponent guessing and or force moves to his or her advantage which gives more opportunity to capture a piece or strategic advantage, but since a checkmate cannot be enforced with a Knight or a Bishop alone among a few other techniques like 3-fold repetition, stalemate etc., the player with black pieces can still play for a draw. The competition is unbiased and equal only when both the players take turns playing white and black pieces. So, one has to regard and insist a chess match as a pair of games with interchanged pieces for getting the correct measurement of the players' skill and not as a single game which is skewed slightly in favour of the player with white pieces. Overall, to the question, "Are white pieces winning more games in multiple pairs of games irrespective of the players?", the answer is "Yes." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.183.37 (talk) 14:15, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Win, lose or draw?
It's a matter of priority: White plays to win or draw; Black plays to draw or win; both don't play to lose [unless Jesus is on board wanting self-crucifixion, but since He has already had it, He isn't going to ask for it again :)]. Chess is a long game involving psychological duress compounded by human failure. So, when plan A fails, plan B could work. Having plan A alone could be risky hit or miss eventuality. With advantage of initiative, White could dominate the board all through excepting for blunders or skillful play of opponent. While Black doesn't have advantage, it can frustrate the attempts at the opponent winning the game which could elicit a blunder, in which case it could even proceed with plan B for a win. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 171.76.38.29 (talk) 13:55, 21 July 2019 (UTC)

The Lede v The Article...
The lede opens with the sentence, "The first-move advantage in chess is the inherent advantage of the player (White) who makes the first move in chess," which is a definitive declaration that White has an inherent advantage. However the article which follows then makes it quite clear that there is no definitively proven, inherent advantage for White, with many theorists and players - some of them former World Champions and 2 of them the greatest players of all time - disagreeing with the conjecture. The second sentence immediately starts to back down from the initial declaration by saying that "Chess players and theorists generally agree that White begins the game with some advantage." We've gone from a definitive, inherent advantage for White, to a wishy-washy general agreement about "some advantage." Even that is deceptive though because the implication that all chess players and all theorists agree on this advantage is patently false; as a full reading of the article demonstrates. The third sentence backs away even further and makes an unproven, cause and effect claim that the supposedly definitive, inherent advantage for White is proven by the statistics when in fact:
 * 1. The statistics can be interpreted in a different way - as is invariably the case with statistics - to show that this definitive, inherent advantage leads to White winning a little more than a third of the time; which certainly doesn't support the claim of a definitive, inherent advantage at all.
 * 2. As shown in the main body of the article, there are other possible explanations for the statistics, such as the definitive, inherent advantage for White being nothing more than an unfounded, self-fulfilling prophecy which is nothing more than players believing White has an advantage and having that unfounded bias affect their play.

The bottom line here is that it is by no mean proven that White has a definitive, inherent advantage and the article should reflect that, rather than starting with the assertion that White has an advantage - as though it is a fact, which it is not - and presenting contrary views as being dissenters; which they are not. You wouldn't start an article about Vaccination with a claim that it causes autism, then present the evidence that it doesn't as a dissenting view; an example I use because Vaccination is an excellent example of statistics being used to prove a cause and effect relationship where none actually exists, exactly as the statistics are used here to 'prove' White's advantage. Neither should this article - or any article for that matter - start by presenting an unproven claim as true, then provide evidence to the contrary as a dissenting view. If a conjecture is unproven then it should be presented as such, with evidence for and against it then presented equally so that the reader can make their own determination. Doing otherwise, as is the case with this article, immediately predisposes the reader to believe the unproven claim is factual, then biases the evidence so that the dissenting view must provide stronger evidence just to be equal; which is ironic, given the nature of the article!

A patient, dispassionate, objective reader will come away from this article with the understanding that there is no definitive proof that White has an advantage in Chess. However a less patient and objective person who only reads the first few sentences will come away with the erroneous viewpoint that White has an advantage in Chess. That viewpoint is unproven and therefore wrong and, as such, the article needs to change. FillsHerTease (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 10:47, 4 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I intend to start changing the article to reflect that White having an advantage is an unproven conjecture - with arguments on both sides - if no one objects. I don't want to waste my time if it's just going to be reverted obviously, so I will leave this for 1 week and if no one has objected I will start making updates after that. FillsHerTease (talk) 13:51, 7 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I agree. The lead did appear to over-state the case that White has a definite advantage, at least when judged by the available references. For the time being I slightly rephrased the opening statement, and added two citation-needed tags.—LithiumFlash (talk) 03:16, 25 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I don't agree. The article was better before your changes.  The claims in the lede are more than adequately referenced in the detail sections of the article. Quale (talk) 05:45, 25 December 2017 (UTC)  BTW, "drawn with best play" and "White has an advantage" are not mutually exclusive claims or in conflict with each other.  The article explains this in detail.  Quale (talk) 05:47, 25 December 2017 (UTC)
 * This article should not have statements synthesized by Wiki editors, and bold statements require reliable references. The article currently does not have any references to support the statement "...the consensus has been that a perfectly played game would end in a draw."—LithiumFlash (talk) 12:47, 27 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Really? Did you read the article?  The First-move advantage in chess section has citations saying chess is a draw from Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Fischer, Fine, Rowson, Adjoran, and Watson (also quoting Kasparov).  If you're not going to read the article you should not edit it or tag it.  Quale (talk) 07:03, 29 December 2017 (UTC)
 * The article expresses a sampling of other opinions but it is certainly not a consensus. The lead should not state that there is a consensus (chess being a draw) when there are already sections in the article expressing other possible endings of perfect play. The lead should be both concise, and accurate. It is very misleading to tell readers that there is consensus when in fact there is none.—LithiumFlash (talk) 05:36, 30 December 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid you don't understand what "consensus" is. Consensus does not require unanimity, and opinions held by a small minority do not prevent consensus.  Also, you are just wrong here.  Adams and Berliner thought White had a decisive advantage, but they knew that their opinions were in the minority and were against the consensus that the game is probably a draw.  They recognized that there was a consensus, they didn't agree with it, and so they said so.  Quale (talk) 05:53, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

And while I'm here, Stack Exchange is not a reliable source for claims about chess. It's essentially a wiki and has the qualities of a self-published source. Stack Exchange answers may cite published sources to bolster the writer's argument, and those sources may be useful in Wikipedia. But really I wish drive-by editors would stop trying to fix this article because it ain't broke. Nearly every "improvement" to this article in the past four years has made it worse. I'm not saying the article is perfect and can't be improved, but virtually none of the people who have felt compelled to put their stamp on this article is as knowledgeable about the subject or as skilled a writer as the original author. The result is that their help has not helped.

Also, once again, please read the article before trying to improve it. There is already a section in this article on solving chess, and it is titled "Solving chess". Astonishing, I know, you could never be expected to find that. That section is well cited. The lede is supposed to summarize the article, so don't put new claims in the lede. Look to the article body and summarize it in the lede. If something about solving chess needs to go in the lede, it should be a very brief summary of the most important parts of the Solving chess section. But while we're here, the lede is already a good summary of the article and it doesn't need to say anything about solving chess. First, it's obvious in context that chess hasn't been solved or there would be no debate over whether White or Black has an advantage. The mere existence of this article implies that chess hasn't been solved. Also, we already have a whole article for that: see Solving chess. Quale (talk) 05:54, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

LithiumFlash, it's beyond ironic that you would tag the article as having unreliable sources. The only unreliable source that was in the article was stack exchange, and you were the one who added it. The article was better before you insisted on trying to "fix it". Quale (talk) 05:57, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Agree w/ Quale in all respects. --IHTS (talk) 01:06, 31 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: this discussion continues in the next section "Chess has two players, White and Black" and then to "Yet another disruptive edit".—LithiumFlash (talk) 14:30, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

To my understanding neither arguments not theorists disagree that white has some advantage, even it is just psychological, as that one is very important in chess. If this advantage is real, the article is giving arguments if this is sufficient white to win and if various perceptions of black playing for draw are supported by facts. So I do not see the first sentence wrong, it states a general opinion and then argues for and against it. Because, regardless, it is still a prevalent opinion that white has some advantage. 46.250.214.3 (talk) 13:06, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

Math investigation
There are very little purely math investigations in chess and computer chess. Even though a lot of algorithms were invented and implemented, the reasoning in computer chess is still human, we have incorporated our perception about chess in computer as well. A very simple test will convince you about that. Play 1. a3. This move means not much for white, so this moves does nothing more than reversing white for black. If white had any advantage it is now in hands of black. If you run the most sophisticated engine or look into any theoretical book, it says that this move is bad because white has wasted one move. But, theoretically that should not matter that much in case black and white are equal or close to equal, just as many authors claim. Additionally chess is about history. The main advantage of computer chess is a quick access to the libraries, but these libraries are human, so we are teaching computer to play more or less faster than us, to think faster. The only detailed investigation done on purely math level is retrograde analysis, especially endgames, where computers are able to analyze each position and find wining combination or prove that it is draw. If we take this as how computer would play chess, we would see that our vision of chess would fall apart, there is a way these endgames are played that we cannot comprehend, they cannot be remembered or reasoned or explained, they are just purely the effect of the connections between mathematical positions in chess. So this article is missing that analysis, and I think I can find a few good sources, I am just not certain if these are talking about advantages of black and white, since endgame is more of having a tempo than about purely black and white playing first long time ago. But, article is written by human, so I guess these are still human opinions after all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.250.214.3 (talk) 13:41, 23 August 2020 (UTC)
 * 1.a3 is not as good a test as you might think. If Black plays ...d5 or ...e5, the a3 move can often be useful (just think about how often ...a6 is played by Black in KP or QP openings). Probably better for Black to adopt a KIA setup (lame source but IM). Double sharp (talk) 08:42, 7 January 2021 (UTC)
 * OK here is a proper source: Djuric, Komarov, and Pantaleoni's Chess Opening Essentials, Vol. 4. Page 239 (on 1.a3): "it is essential to remember that ...a6 is fundamentally a reactive move that prepares counterplay on the queenside in openings where White has already taken possession of the centre. The problem here is that it is impossible to have counterplay if the other side is not attacking you." On those grounds they recommend the not-so-sharp replies 1...Nf6 or 1...g6, which make 1.a3 look a bit pointless. But I would also point out that if Black is not doing the attacking (which is needed to make 1.a3 look silly), then he's not exactly making full use of the first-move advantage handed to him. Double sharp (talk) 07:31, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Solving chess?
About 2/3 of the article with that name has been copy-pasted here. It’s only tangentially related to the subject matter of the article, and if kept, I propose it be summarized by a sentence and linked to the other article. It’s duplicate info with no sufficient purpose here. Sbalfour (talk) 22:55, 20 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Actually the information flow was in the opposite direction, Solving chess was created in 2010 by copying text that was in this article first. Quale (talk) 07:03, 21 July 2021 (UTC)

Dead link needs fixing
Can someone please substitute the cite https://web.archive.org/web/20140708102445/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/thesystem.pdf for the dead link in footnote 83? Thanks! Krakatoa (talk) 20:10, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

The link to Silman's review in footnote 84 is also dead. Can someone try to use the Wayback Machine to save it? Thanks! Krakatoa (talk) 20:13, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

FAR needed
Since the editors of this page refuse to remove a "quotations" section despite the fact that such sections have no place on wikipedia per various policies and guidelines, I've taken a closer look at the article and determined that it does not currently meet the fA criteria. Some of the sources do not appear to be high quality RS as required, with dodgy internet sites such as being cited, as well as likely outdated sources such as. Also, the citations are a mess, with various formats used and not all books with appropriate identifiers and page numbers provided. All of these things would have to be fixed to avoid FAR. (t &#183; c)  buidhe  08:00, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
 * You named WP:NOTDIRECTORY for reason in editsum for removing the quotes sec. Can't find anything there that w/ prohibit the sec, can you point out what's at WP:NOTDIRECTORY that does? Thx. --IHTS (talk) 08:15, 21 November 2022 (UTC)
 * I have not examined 's other complaints, but Edward Winter (the author of the second link) is a published subject-matter expert. Per WP:SPS his website should qualify as RS. Double sharp (talk) 13:23, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

Possibly incorrect reference to "The Noble Game of Chess"
This wikipdedia article has the line "Joseph Bertin wrote in his 1735 textbook The Noble Game of Chess, "He that plays first, is understood to have the attack." " This line seems to contradict the information presented in the wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Stamma which says Philipp Stamma is the author of The Noble Game of Chess, and that it was published (in English) in 1745, not in 1735. 2601:14F:C001:9865:AD6E:A2C2:EEA1:F40C (talk) 21:07, 12 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Pinging, who wrote that sentence forever ago (as well as much of the rest of the article). --JBL (talk) 21:12, 12 April 2023 (UTC)
 * It appears that both Stamma and Bertin each wrote a book with that title. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+Noble+Game+of+Chess%22+book+(Stamma+OR+Bertin)&rlz=1C1JZAP_enUS1048US1048&oq=%22The+Noble+Game+of+Chess%22+book+(Stamma+OR+Bertin)&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIKCAEQIRigARiLAzIKCAIQIRigARiLA9IBCTI1NzI5ajFqNKgCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 Krakatoa (talk) 17:57, 19 May 2023 (UTC)