First of all, it’s important to note that Chess pieces were not usually white or black. There were light and dark pieces. When books on the game began to be published, however, it was easiest to print the pieces shown in the pictures as white or black. So, the author has to ask himself, what do I call each player? “White” and “Black” was the obvious solution. Notice the capitalization.

Now, it is unclear exactly how White was chosen. Before it was standardized, the common practice was to first choose who moves first, and then let that person choose their color. One of the most famous games in history was played this way— in “The Immortal Game,” played in 1851, Black moves first.

As round-robin tournaments became more and more common, a problem with this rule started to become apparent. You must remember that as White, your King is on your right, and as Black, he is on your left. For advanced players, this meant having to adjust your opening according to what color they played as, and who played first. A player might be better at playing as one or the other when moving second, however. So players were partly depending on luck as to how many times they would get to play with their best color during a tournament. There needed to be a way to eliminate chance from the game in order to ensure that each player had an equal opportunity to win.

Sometime around the mid 1800s, it began to become increasingly popular for White to move first. Still, in some parts of the world (parts of Germany, for example), Black moving first remained popular for awhile. In some clubs and organizations, it even became the rule. After winning the first world championship in 1889, Wilhelm Steinitz pushed the idea that White should always move first. When Emanuel Lasker succeeded him as World Champion, and also pushed for White moving first, it pretty much put the final nail in the coffin on the matter.