Go already solves it in a quite elegant way: black pays white 5.5/6.5/7.5 (depending on ruleset) points in komi for the right to go first. The general feeling i

Go already solves it in a quite elegant way: black pays white 5.5/6.5/7.5 (depending on ruleset) points in komi for the right to go first. The general feeling is that 7.5, the most common American standard, is a little high and gives white an advantage. 5.5 is a little too low, so 6.5 is ideal but not commonly used for a variety of complicated reasons around rulesets and how games are scored. The general feeling of playing white v black is also very different. Since white has free points, you try to play exchanges as evenly as possible, whereas playing as black (for me) has a constant sense of trying to find enough points to win the game. A theoretically perfect even exchange is actually a slight loss for black and a slight gain for white. This also ties into the handicap system extremely well. The higher ranked player lets the lower ranked player place free stones on the board (in predetermined locations), depending on how far apart their ranks are. Generally this leads to fairly even games if the handicap is set correctly.