Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 11:13:34 05/20/99
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On May 20, 1999 at 13:44:08, J. Wesley Cleveland wrote: >On May 19, 1999 at 19:24:48, Dann Corbit wrote: > >>On May 19, 1999 at 18:47:25, Brett Clark wrote: >> >>>There are more possible moves in a chess game than there are molecules in the >>>universe. For that reason, I don't think that we'll ever see a computer play >>>"1. e4, mate in 50". >>That may be an overestimate. There are (according to some sources) only 10^52 >>possible chess board positions [You don't need to know all the moves if you know >>all the positions -- transpositions are unimportant]. There are (according to >>other sources) about 10^82 elementary particles in the observable universe. It >>would be a bit strange if the average molecule had 10^30 particles in it. >> >>OTOH, I suspect you are right about "1. e4, mate in 50" being a long way off. >> >>I think that we should always be careful to say what is impossible or possible. >>There are sometimes new ways of looking at things. > >The thread about representing positions in the minimum number of bits is also >about setting an upper bound on the maximum number of chess positions. 160 bits >is 2^160 or ~= 10^48. Yes, what a fascinating rejoinder! In this case, if 10^52 is correct, then 173 bits should be the minimum, since 2^173 = 1.197e52 If we can encode in less, then the number of board positions is less than we thought (or we have an error in our thinking and the scheme won't work).
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