It's possible, although it seems unlikely, that white is in zugzwang [1] on the starting position, in which case black would have a win with perfect play. Ches

It's possible, although it seems unlikely, that white is in zugzwang [1] on the starting position, in which case black would have a win with perfect play. Chess is only solved for positions with 7 pieces or less (and some configurations of 8 pieces [2]), so we're far from knowing best play from the 32-piece starting position. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugzwang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugzwang [2] https://www.chess.com/blog/Rocky64/eight-piece-tablebases-a-progress-update-and-some-results https://www.chess.com/blog/Rocky64/eight-piece-tablebases-a-...