I am very familiar with tennis, in which the server has a huge advantage, particularly for men. Watching volleyball in the Olympics, the serving side appeared to be at significant disadvantage. Similarly, badminton seems to give the receiving team first opportunity to go for a winner. Table-tennis looked fairly even.
So aside from tennis, in the other sports the serve appears to be defensive rather than offensive - the objective is not to set up the opposing player(s). Am I right or can experts offer a counter view?
What about squash and racketball? Does the server or receiver have the advantage in these sports?
Note that I am talking about sports played at the highest level - no doubt things can be very different at the hacker level.
I could have sworn when they taught us volleyball in high school that only the serving team could score. Thus you kept serve and kept scoring points until the other team managed to get the serve from you. It really threw me when watching they Olympics this year.
I play a bit of squash, and at my level (rubbish, verging on criminally so) it’s possible to profit off the serve - indeed, my serve to the forehand court is pretty much my main weapon other than swearing so loudly my opponent temporarily loses the power of sight. However, at a professional level serving is pretty much a matter of getting the ball in play without gifting your opponent an advantageous angle. It’s like watching a completely different game, really.
Well, maybe. If you believe the source and the statistics (I haven’t been able to find the article they cite) it appears there’s a slight edge for White going first, with the rationale that since White gets the first move and thus first influence on the board, they force Black to play in a reactionary fashion. Or something like that.
In my limited experience it doesn’t really matter.
As a professional chess teacher , in a game between inexperienced players the first move really doesn’t make any difference. As Tarkatover said “it’s more who makes the last mistake!”
As an internationally-ranked player , the first move certainly matters. All top players have better results with White and all strong tournaments reflect this advantage. I have seen estimates of White scoring 55% in games between equally strong players (and that’s true in my games).
In postal chess, the % of White wins is even higher. No doubt the more time you have, the more the advantage of the first move counts.
Here are some recent grandmaster tournament results:
Tournament White wins/Black wins/Draw
Sarajevo Bosnia 26% 13% 61%
Capablanca Memorial 34% 27% 39%
Karadjordje Serbia 25% 18% 57%
Sigeman & Co 28% 22% 50%
Zalaegerszeg 17% 17% 66%
If we are using very loose definitions of “sports”, then I would add that the player who goes first in Scrabble also has an advantage. I have seen 55% quoted as the win percentage.
, in a game between inexperienced players the first move really doesn’t make any difference. As Tarkatover said “it’s more who makes the last mistake!”
, the first move certainly matters. All top players have better results with White and all strong tournaments reflect this advantage. I have seen estimates of White scoring 55% in games between equally strong players (and that’s true in my games).