A common designation for one of the opponents in various two-player
board games (see also black).
The game pieces played by White are virtually always white
or ivory in color, whereas Black's pieces come in black or
almost any other color.
Some properties of White in various games:
- Chess
-
White moves first; this is generally regarded as giving a slight
advantage, as e gets a lead in development,
but this is not quantified.
It is customary to refer to White's light-squared
and dark-squared bishops, given that both bishops are
the same color. (One of the properties of the bishop in Chess is that
it always remains on the same color square that it started on; each side
has one bishop that roams the light squares, while the other travels only
the dark.)
- Go
-
White defers to Black for the first move.
All Go sets (I'll take the chance of generalizing) use pieces (stones)
which are actually white and black.
As a consequence of Go using the grid lines rather than the squares for
play, it has the distinction that a set has one more black piece than
white ones.
- Terrace
-
Black moves first.
Since Terrace is a proprietary game (being a new kid on the block)
with only one board manufacturer, the pieces are white and black.
(The three- and four-player variations add red and blue pieces,
but who plays those?)
This may not always be true, but it appears to me that the use of
White and Black to designate players is used only
in games where the player who moves first is specified by the rules
(as with those mentioned above). For example, backgammon also uses
two differently colored sets of pieces (one of which is usually white
and the other varying), but the first play is determined by chance and
the players are not named.