Hi,
I have noticed that lately, more than 70% of my classical games have been with Black. I use the seek search function, so I am not clicking on challenges where the opponent sets a color preference. I don't mind playing with black too much, but at the same time I think something's off. Any idea why, or is this normal?
In your past 30 games, you've been black 16 times and white 14 times. That's for all time controls, not just classical.
In any case, it being 50-50 in the long run does not mean there are not stretches where it is lopsided. If you flip a coin enough, you will get long sequences of only heads or only tails that come up; it does not mean the coin is flawed, it is just a fluke coincidence.
If you count only classical games, I have been black 20/30 of the last games. I guess you are right, although you mentioning that it's more balanced across all time controls makes me wonder if that's how the balancing works. In any case it's not a super big deal, just something I've definitely noticed.
What is your overall (long-term) percentage of Classical games as black? (Are you spending a lot of time issuing challenges as White, in Classical games? This before accepting coin-toss challenges?)
> "I am not clicking on challenges where the opponent sets a color preference."
Speaks nothing to whether or not you set a color preference for challenges you issue.
Yes, this is normal if your White versus Black ratio outweighs your opponent in coin toss. (So, it could be skewed compared to your opponent playing more toss-up games than you.) This can also happen due to tournament assignment performance.
If the objective is to provide a reasonable or rational percentage of the same play for each player (right around 50%, but can never be exactly 50% except in rare cases or scenarios) ... then, if you look at your overall White:Black ratio, it's probably skewed one direction or another, but not much more or less than 50% overall.
For that matter, what defines "lately" -- a few games (how many?), or overall?
Your total quantity of Classically rated games is 301 (according to clicking on "Classical" from your user profile screen). And that's a very small population (or, sample, if you play unrated). For that matter, your privacy settings prohibit others from looking at your Chess Insights (go to your profile, at the bottom of your description, to the right of the graph, click on "Chess Insights" -- which is sampled and weighted; make sure to click "update insights" in the top left corner, and then filter on Classical games -- it'll give you some very accurate statistical ratios).
Weighting can also depend on factors such as those accepting challenges you issue. (If you are rated significantly better than someone who accepts a challenge you issue; if you have not set your lower-threshold appropriately; and vice-versa.)
Surely rating is not considered when assigning pieces? That would be absurd.
Thanks, I have looked at the insight. It does seem more balanced there, where I have 141 games as white and 153 as black.
To answer some other question, I only started noticing this about a month ago, I also thought that this may be due to the seek settings where I specify that my opponent should be fairly high rated, and perhaps these opponents are also needing to play as white. Again, this is not a big deal, I just definitely noticed it and I wanted to bring it up in case something actually changed recently.
By the way, if I modify my insights to the last 2 months, I can see that I played 12 games as white and 21 as black, so while this may be normal, it explains why I noticed it.
@Chessty_McBiggins -- #6
Yeah, it sucks to say or think that weighting should somehow be based on ratings disparity.
However, IRL, OTB, why would a highly-rated player not give a signficantly-lower-rated player advantage (White) in their first game? (Next game, switch colors, etc.)
Things, however, change, when two players have been matched-up before, or when tournament schedules come into play, or, if over time ratings have separated significantly. (Therein, there should be equal-or-approximate-weighting.)
In an ideal world. It is now, however, "ideal," though sometimes rarely (i.e. first match against two players with > Glick RD disparity.)
And again, I get paired as black, this time against someone I already played before, and I was black last time as well. If it's really a coin flipping algorithm deciding which color you play, could it not be changed to take into account past games at least?