"David Kane" wrote in message
. ..



His claim that the "better player" will win with either color is
not supported by the evidence. Kasparov won 35% of
his games as Black. Who were these "equal-or-better-
than-Kasparov" players in the other 65% of his games?


Okay - I researched this and listed results below - but note should be taken
that this is from a specific data set, and that Adorjan notes that more
white games are recorded for champions than black games.

Therefore, to answer 'wins with black better than Kasparov' who has the base
number 40.8% in this data-set, we have these percentages:-

Steinitz 50
Lasker 49.7
Capablanca 49.2
Alekhine 56.1
Euwe 41.9
Botvinnik 42.1
Fischer 50.8

from the same data set Kasparov is 1st with white wins at 65.2%. Other
players scoring 60% or better a

Steinitz 62.9
Alekhine 60.0
Fischer 62.1

In this same data set, Kasparov drew 47.3% of his black games, and 30.8% of
his white games.

The danger in looking at only top players needs to be emphasised, and in
this survey of 755 games from 34 W Ch matches, Adorjan [in his Black is
still OK! title] append the note 'the database contains more White than
Black losses of Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine and Fischer.

Phil Innes