In a flawless game...

Would white win due to the first mover advantage or would it be a draw?

Originally posted by Ruubz
Would white win due to the first mover advantage or would it be a draw?

There's always the chance White starts in zugzwang, so maybe it's a forced win for Black. 🙂

Originally posted by robscullion
There's always the chance White starts in zugzwang, so maybe it's a forced win for Black. 🙂

I don't think its possible to have a perfect game. I think it is completley balanced from the get-go. If white plays flawlessly and so does black, it will be a draw.

That question has been argued for centuries, a draw seems to be intuitively the correct answer, but who knows?

Originally posted by ih8sens
Lets try not to find out... perfect chess is pointless chess.

Originally posted by Ruubz
Would white win due to the first mover advantage or would it be a draw?

Originally posted by Ruubz
Would white win due to the first mover advantage or would it be a draw?

Originally posted by Mahout
You could test this by playing against yourself...opponents should be evenly matched!

Originally posted by robscullion
There's always the chance White starts in zugzwang, so maybe it's a forced win for Black. 🙂

I don't know that anyone knows the answer definitively, but my suspicions are as follows:

1) White, having initiative, most likely gains a small advantage from this. Since the starting position is mirrored, and non-optimal, there is little chance it's zugzwang, which usually occurs in much simpler positions stemming from endgame. This may account for white winning more than black in games between less advanced players.

2) It is generally believed White's initiative advantage isn't significant enough to force a win in a perfect game, which would mean a draw result in such a game (which may have several equally valid branches, and hence may be a family of games rather than one distinct set of moves.) Unless Black messes up, they usually will have a good answer for White (and visa versa).

Originally posted by geepamoogle
I don't know that anyone knows the answer definitively, but my suspicions are as follows:

1) White, having initiative, most likely gains a small advantage from this. Since the starting position is mirrored, and non-optimal, there is little chance it's zugzwang, which usually occurs in much simpler positions stemming from endgame. This may account fo ...[text shortened]... .) Unless Black messes up, they usually will have a good answer for White (and visa versa).