Red and white chess sets were very common in Victorian times. I've heard that this was because of the War of the Roses (red for Lancashire, white for Yorkshire). Black pieces started to become more common than red as light and dark-coloured woods started to be used more than bone and ivory. If the wood was dark enough (e.g. ebony) then the dark pieces didn't need staining at all.
I believe that in matches in those days you'd have one colour for the whole match and red/white would alternate in moving first. This would also be the case for a series of games played in one session.
Of course the boards would not have had the A-H / 1-8 along the sides as the moves were recorded in descriptive notation (or an even more cumbersome version of it - "bishop to kings square" ) which describes the move from the point of view of the person making it. For example K-Q1 would be Kd1 if it was a White move and Kd8 if it was a Black, ahem, Red, one.
@uglytoproll
I own a set with orange and blue pieces and matching board without letters or numbers 😉
@uglytoproll saidIgnore it, it will go away when the idiots get fed up and move onto something else.
The whiners are saying chess is racist because white moves first.
So their idea is a coin toss to see who moves first 🤣
In checkers black moves first.
In Go black moves first.
If they change chess I will quit.
(I was never any good anyways 😉 )
They don't really think it's racist, it's a "we have the power to change things" situation.
It'll never happen.
The same group of activists are saying statues of Jesus shuld be removed because he was a white supremacist.
He wasn't even white.
Where does it all end -dismantle the pyramids at Giza because they were built with slave labour?
Most of these activists are like others before them-just jumping on a bandwagon for fun.
Like the idiots who go to English football matches and shout "scab" when Nottingham play.
Most of them weren't even born in 1984 and have no idea what they are shouting about.
Social media is largely to blame.
It should be banned in my opinion.
It's dangerous and causes more trouble than the good it does.
Sorry for ranting on.
I forgot this was a chess only forum
@venda
No don't, a lot of what you said there (above) is bang on.[edit] perhaps best, toss it overboard to el duce in the debates🚬
@uglytoproll saidWill you quit playing?
The whiners are saying chess is racist because white moves first.
So their idea is a coin toss to see who moves first 🤣
In checkers black moves first.
In Go black moves first.
If they change chess I will quit.
(I was never any good anyways 😉 )
No I won't quit playing. I've rediscovered my love for chess after a long layoff; and would very much appreciate you confine your posts to chess in this forum, and take your political views elsewhere.