Huge Black vs White discrepancy

As white I am 17-1-1, as black I am 14-1-11. I was curious as to why this might be, and if anyone else sees such discrepancies in their games. I have heard that white has a slight advantage, but that only shows up at master-level games. The average rating of my white opponent is 1255 and my average black opponent is 1315. I find that to be a bit of a discrepancy as well, but perhaps that is a normal range?

Originally posted by amolv06
As white I am 17-1-1, as black I am 14-1-11. I was curious as to why this might be, and if anyone else sees such discrepancies in their games. I have heard that white has a slight advantage, but that only shows up at master-level games. The average rating of my white opponent is 1255 and my average black opponent is 1315. I find that to be a bit of a discrepancy as well, but perhaps that is a normal range?

I often play better with black because with black you tend have more say with the opening. You can learn the Kings Gambit or Ruy Lopez all you want however those plans go out the window if your opponent plays something other than e5.

So you need to look at your black opening repertoire, whether it be the french, sicilian, caro kahn for d4 King's indian defence, benko gambit, Nimzo Indian etc etc If you have sound knowledge of a few good openings I'm sure your results as black will improve.

Thanks for the advice. I suppose I do have more knowledge as to how to play the opening with white as compared to black.

Originally posted by Audacious
I often play better with black because with black you tend have more say with the opening. You can learn the Kings Gambit or Ruy Lopez all you want however those plans go out the window if your opponent plays something other than e5.

So you need to look at your black opening repertoire, whether it be the french, sicilian, caro kahn for d4 King's indian ...[text shortened]... f you have sound knowledge of a few good openings I'm sure your results as black will improve.

but if the problem is not the opening system ?
perhaps you need to learn how to defense properly in the whole game ...

perhaps you need to learn how to defense properly in the whole game

This is probably also true. I know my game is not up to par with you higher rated players. My whole game in general needs work. However, if defense is the issue as you're implying, would this not be a problem with white as well? I would assume so, but perhaps I am missing something. Could I request you to shed some light if that be the case?

Originally posted by zintieriv
but if the problem is not the opening system ?
perhaps you need to learn how to defense properly in the whole game ...

Depends really, because if you know a solid opening the chances of you getting mating early on are slim. I prefer playing with black because to a certain extend you can dictate what sort of game it's going to be by your opening choice. So if your a sharp player you may want to go for sicilian najdorf or if you want something a little more solid maybe go for the French.

If you find an opening that suits your play I'm sure you'll get more wins.

I would imagine, most novices would tend to get much better results with white than with black but as players improve the performance gap would narrow until at IM level the differances are only slightly in whites favour.

Just a thought but it might be wrong

You timed out a lot as black...

Im the opposite. I'm 10-7 with white and 19-4 with black.

I don't know why I'm not comfortable with white.

Originally posted by knightpins93
You timed out a lot as black...

This is true. I didn't notice that the only time-outs I have are with black. Still, though, 17-1-1 as white is still a lot better than whatever my record is with black even without the timeouts.

Originally posted by amolv06
This is true. I didn't notice that the only time-outs I have are with black. Still, though, 17-1-1 as white is still a lot better than whatever my record is with black even without the timeouts.

I tend to think that scores for people with your rating tend to have more to do with just random luck than how you played something.

For example, you may have simply blundered more with black than white - who knows why, these things happen when you lose focus. 😉

Of course, the opening may be a major factor. For example, I score very poorly against 1.d4 - 8-8-2 (W-L-D).

That is probably true. I guess there is not a big enough sampling of games to really call it a major discrepancy, however from what I've seen it is certainly a statistical anomaly.

Originally posted by amolv06
That is probably true. I guess there is not a big enough sampling of games to really call it a major discrepancy, however from what I've seen it is certainly a statistical anomaly.

Well, I see the white v. black survey thread has been bumped - why don't you throw your games into the formula to see how your results compare to others on this site?

Btw: Thanks Gatecrasher for creating that thread and showing the formula. 😉

Hmm, haven't seen it yet, will check it out. Thanks for the heads up.