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Subject: Re: How many possible moves in one position?

Author: Don Dailey

Date: 11:01:13 12/07/97

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On December 07, 1997 at 13:41:03, Jari Huikari wrote:

>On December 07, 1997 at 13:14:54, Don Dailey wrote:
>
>>>Could you tell me what is the maximum number of legal moves in a
>>>chess game position?
>>>A) In theory?
>>>B) In practice?
>
>
>>I don't believe this is known.  It might be fun to make a contest
>>out of this though.  Can somone post a position with a high number
>>of legal moves?   And the rest of us will try to better this?
>
>>The rules are:
>
>>1)  Must be a fully legal position, (no more than 9 queens for
>>instance.)
>>2)  Post in FEN.
>
>I think that some chess programmers must have thought this question some
>time.
>
>I remember a 'mate in one'-position having 175 or so legal moves. Over
>100
>of them were mates.
>
>Perhaps someone has statistics from 'real' games. BTW: What's the
>average
>number of moves precisely? I know it's about 30, maybe a little more.
>(In
>middlegame anyhow.)
>I already know, that minimum is zero (in mate or stalemate. :-)
>
>(I _may_ have some use for these information in my new program.)
>
>					Jari

I'm using my program to search for NORMAL positions with lots of legal
moves.

I'm sure I can do much better but to kick this off, can someone beat
65?   I know it's possible to find positions with over 100.

Pehaps some modification of the 8 queens solution will give us a
nice lower bound on the most "complicated" position.

Don


3r2k1/1p3ppp/p4P2/P3r3/1P3nPP/5RQ1/2q5/R6K b - -    ; 65 legal moves.

P.S.  I haven't checked this for accuracy yet.

Don








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