Game of Chess Accused of Being Racist as White Goes First

Chess is under fire for being "racist."

No, really. It's a real ongoing discussion.

An Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio station has taken the view that chess is racist because the white pieces go first. ABC has even reached out to known chess players to comment on the matter.

“They called me up and asked whether I was the John Adams involved in chess,” Adams told the Daily Telegraph. "Then they said with everything going on, they wanted to have a conversation about white going first (in chess) - and the racial context of whether white should go first. I said I’m no longer involved but I passed them along to another person.”

"The ABC have taken the view that chess is RACIST given that white always go first," Adams tweets. "Trust the taxpayer funded national broadcaster to apply ideological Marxist frameworks to anything & everything in Australia!"

Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov also defended the game:

Never count out a news company for searching deep into the playbook to find any sort of relevancy. But, in that process, you can get caught and then mocked. That's what happened here. It's a ridiculous stance to take. What's more, any minute spent trying to think the game is racially motivated are sad minutes you'll never get back.

I, like Adams, would be ashamed if my tax dollars went into this type of investigation. I also wouldn't rule out the United States attempting to cancel the great game of chess.

To show how fake this outrage is, Dr. Kevin Bonham, Australian Chess Federation committee member, stated it doesn't even matter which piece goes first. It has just become standard over time. Nothing racial.

To wrap it up, you can either pick which color goes first, stick with what is common, play a different game, or get angry.