From: Larry Kaufman <lkaufman <at> WIZARD <dot> NET>
Date: 1 feb 2001
Subject: Re: Antwort: Ranging vs Static

At 04:25 PM 2/1/01 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Has there been a breakdown of who does better in each game type as either
black or white?
>I know that usually it is around 51% : 49% but do these ratios change
depending on whether double static, static vs ranging (both
>ways around) and double ranging?
>Alan
>
     I have seen such statistics for individual years in the past, but not
recently.  The traditional view, presumably based on actual results, is
that ranging rook is more suitable for the second player because it was
considered primarily defensive in nature.  I believe that in double static
games, the first move feels more significant, and probably the statistics
favor the first player by more than the overall average.  There are
normally not enough double ranging games for such statistics to be very
meaningful.
     However recently the ranging rook has become more of an offensive
strategy, at least when the static side avoids a quick attack.  Perhaps for
this reason, the first move is also starting to mean more in static vs.
ranging games, and therefore ranging rook is now seen almost as frequently
for the first player as for the second.  All of this is primarily due to
the influence of Ryu-O Fujii.

     Larry