Dear friends and fellow chess players. I am writing because I have recently found a devastating bug, not just in chess.com, but in our beloved game of chess itself. I know what you’re thinking, how could I possibly find something wrong with the game of chess when it has been around for thousands of years, available for millions of people to study and learn? But it is true, and by the end of this post, I hope you will be convinced as well.

I first found out about this bug three months ago, when I noticed that I was consistently winning games when I was playing as black, and almost never as white and that I always had a feeling that black was throwing if I won as white. Coincidence? I thought so. But as time went on, I realized if I applied myself I could always win as black, never losing, I grew less convinced.

Two months ago, I started testing my theory that black, not white, had a winning advantage at move one, indeed a large advantage. I started playing chess like never before. I studied with the engine before I realized that engines were better chess players than humans, but even they could be compromised. So I started recruiting players to help me test, old players and new. My testing mostly involved playing chess games by the dozen (IRL) with many different people of different strengths. In my lengthy testing of at least 6 hours a day, I found that 96.7% of the time, if black tries their best to win, they will. The other 3.3% of the time can be accounted to human error. The evidence clearly shows that black has a very winning position from at least move 3, while white is of course then losing by move 3. My theory as to why white, not black, wins more games found in all the major databases, is because white in these games is either new to the game, or there is potential bribing going on between the players.

I sent the evidence to the USCF and the CFC to review. In light of my testing, they replied that they agree with me, but that they simply cannot change the game of chess to be more equal. With their combined efforts, the USCF and CFC found that they had been looking at chess in a totally wrong way. They have also started secretary testing, and have found that there is a forced win for black by move 1! This is of course vastly NOT what we accepted solved chess to look like, with a forced win for black, and not white. The forced line will NOT be foreclosed, in order that the game of chess can still be enjoyed. Along with this new forced win, the USCF and CFC have found that there is a simple way to fix the problem. I will not be displaying the position here, but you can find a more detailed explanation here, in the just-published video jointly collaborated on by chess.com, the USCF, and the CFC here.

Although they internally insisted the game of chess will NOT be changed to not have a forced win, they have now relented, saying that “if the general community, including all the titled players and un-titled alike, agree with a majority that our beloved game should be changed to a better position, it will be done with gusto.” -Mike Hoffpauir. The vote will take place in a few months. Please note that almost ALL theory you may have learned will actually still be applicable. Here are some quotes from the select players who knew about this before today:

“I’m honestly devastated by this news” -GM Magnus Carlsen

“I will still play, even if the game is not revised” -GM Anish Giri

“I calculated this line ages ago. You just slide the horse up, take the juicers, and you're winning here.” -GM Hikaru Nakamura

In total, I interviewed over 150 major chess players. You can view the complete podcast here.

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