Starting in 1988 , Adorján have argued in a series of books and magazine articles that " Black is OK ! " Alone amongst modern writers , Adorján claim that White start the game with essentially no advantage . He write , " In my opinion , the only obvious advantage for White is that if he or she play for a draw , and do so well , then Black can hardly avoid this without taking obvious risks . " Adorján go so far as to claim that , " The tale of White 's advantage is a delusion , belief in it is based on mass psychosis . " Rowson write that Adorján 's " contention is one of the most important chess ideas of the last two decades ... because it have shaken our assumption that White begin the game with some advantage , and revealed its ideological nature " . However , Rowson reject Adorján 's claim that White have essentially no advantage , reasoning that " ' White is better ' and ' Black is OK ' need not be mutually exclusive claims " .