david upshaw: I'd prefer to go second in Knight Fight. The advantage of picking the same colour as white, and hence be able to block white while white will never be able to block you far outweight the possibility of white being able to do an extra move.

AbigailII: I agree - I would much rather be the 2nd player.

When I am white, the first thing I do is see what the highest point is on the 2nd players first row.... and pick the opposite color as that since 90% of the time they will pick the highest number without even thinking about later in the game when "blocking" comes into play.

AbigailII: The percentage shows the white player wins 60% of the time.

david upshaw: I think that is because most players who play as black does not look to the long term and only looks for the highest points for the first 1-3 moves.

If black starts on the same color square as white, black will then be able to "block" spaces so white can't jump to them and can do more planning towards the end of the game.

For example, white might see that they can jump to 23, then 99, then 97 - but if I can get and "block" the 99, they will be stuck with fewer points... or even blocked where they can't move.

Taking a look at my 61 wins - 48% are from black (29) and 52% are from white (32) - so basically even

From my 25 loses, 13 black & 12 white - so again, almost even.

So at least from my experience, I find both sides close to being even.

... and before someone says it, each game is different and sometimes there are exceptions to always starting on the same color as white. Sometimes there will be a 99 - 98 - 97 - 84 type of first 4 moves starting on the other color which you can't pass up... but for the most part, being black & starting on the same color helps a lot.

coan.net: It would be interesting to track on a longer period of time. In both your wins and losses, white won 52% of the time. Casinos are build on winning less than 52% of the time (blackjack and roulette).