4 ms·

I fail to see how this would be the case. I think it may even increase opening variety. I think you'd see many more opening with oddly position a-c/f-g file pa

I fail to see how this would be the case. I think it may even increase opening variety. I think you'd see many more opening with oddly position a-c/f-g file pawns, or horses thrown into the rail. I think it could make for a radically different game opening game that would be just as diverse as the current game. Perhaps more so. I wonder if you misunderstood? Since this is very far from agreeing to a draw at the outset. I meant the cake cutting for only the very first move. Not the subsequent moves. Only the very first move played on the board is incentivized to be value neutral.

sellyme 5y ago
> I wonder if you misunderstood? [...] I meant the cake cutting for only the very first move. No, I got that. > I fail to see how this would be the case. I think it may even increase opening variety. At a high level players will be relatively comfortable with playing at least one opening from any (sensible) opening move, so swapping would offer very little disadvantage in terms of not being prepared. So the decision on whether or not to swap is almost entirely based on how good that opening move is. Now, white has a significant advantage on just about every opening move that's currently played with any regularity. Therefore black will almost always swap, and gain that same advantage. So it's in white's interest to not play those moves, and instead pick whichever moves are as close to 50/50 as possible, so that their opponent cannot get an advantage. The crucial thing to note is that most possible moves white can make are either good (preserve a meaningful advantage for white) or bad (immediately gives advantage to black). There are not many first moves that result in a 50/50 game. Therefore the number of viable first moves is decreased. They're certainly different first moves, and we'd see a lot of variety for a year or two, maybe even up to a decade as people play and learn entirely new lines. But in the long run the number of opening moves that don't immediately give up an advantage would be reduced.
- deleted 5y ago
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- Tomminn 5y ago
  This is a good response, upvoted it. It begs another question though, is chess a worse game if white begins with a pawn on a3 instead of a2 (assuming this is the result every time the suggested procedure is used), and black moves first? Maybe. But I think it's an okay solution if you want a neutral platform for a tie-breaking game.
esrauch 5y ago
I just checked and "horses thrown into the rail" (by which I assume you mean Na3 or Nh3) would still never get played because they're terrible for white; stockfish puts them at -0.5 and -0.7 respectively, compared to the white advantage is only +0.2.

sellyme 5y ago

> I wonder if you misunderstood? [...] I meant the cake cutting for only the very first move. No, I got that. > I fail to see how this would be the case. I think it may even increase opening variety. At a high level players will be relatively comfortable with playing at least one opening from any (sensible) opening move, so swapping would offer very little disadvantage in terms of not being prepared. So the decision on whether or not to swap is almost entirely based on how good that opening move is. Now, white has a significant advantage on just about every opening move that's currently played with any regularity. Therefore black will almost always swap, and gain that same advantage. So it's in white's interest to not play those moves, and instead pick whichever moves are as close to 50/50 as possible, so that their opponent cannot get an advantage. The crucial thing to note is that most possible moves white can make are either good (preserve a meaningful advantage for white) or bad (immediately gives advantage to black). There are not many first moves that result in a 50/50 game. Therefore the number of viable first moves is decreased. They're certainly different first moves, and we'd see a lot of variety for a year or two, maybe even up to a decade as people play and learn entirely new lines. But in the long run the number of opening moves that don't immediately give up an advantage would be reduced.

deleted 5y ago
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Tomminn 5y ago
This is a good response, upvoted it. It begs another question though, is chess a worse game if white begins with a pawn on a3 instead of a2 (assuming this is the result every time the suggested procedure is used), and black moves first? Maybe. But I think it's an okay solution if you want a neutral platform for a tie-breaking game.

esrauch 5y ago

I just checked and "horses thrown into the rail" (by which I assume you mean Na3 or Nh3) would still never get played because they're terrible for white; stockfish puts them at -0.5 and -0.7 respectively, compared to the white advantage is only +0.2.