Chess on a Really Big Board an awful idea. Each player has 256 Pawns and 256 pieces. The average length of a game is likely to be more [than] 2000 moves." Betza also considered starting positions with 16 (one chess set) or 64 (four sets) pieces instead of 32 (two sets), but eventually rejected them. They are as follows: Betza also suggested "Four Board Great Chess", which would have more pieces than the rose that could not make their full moves on smaller boards, and having pawns on the third rank and about 24 pieces in the two rows behind them; and similarly, "Four Board Great
White and Black in chess in the first game. Staunton observed in 1871 that "many players still cultivate the foolish habit of playing exclusively with one colour." On October 19, 1857, Mr. Perrin, the Secretary of the New York Chess Club, informed those assembled at the First American Chess Congress that he had received a letter from Johann Löwenthal, a leading English master, "suggesting the advisableness of always giving the first move in public games, to the player of the white pieces." Löwenthal also wrote that London's chess clubs had adopted a new rule that White always moves first. The club evidently did not follow