Author: Eran
Date: 18:28:29 10/01/01
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On October 01, 2001 at 15:42:56, Robert Hyatt wrote: >On October 01, 2001 at 15:14:07, Slater Wold wrote: > >>I am not a math expert, and I know a lot of you (Uri) out there are. So I ask >>all you experts to solve this problem: >> >> *How many legal positions are their in chess?* >> >>Also, please take into account that the king will always be present on the >>board. >> >>I understand that there will more than likely be more positions than actually >>possible. Such as the position of PPPPPPPPK vs ppppppppk. But I am willing to >>deal with these. >> >>What would be the formula, and more importantly, the solution to this? >> >>Thanks! >> >> >> >>Slate > > >The best bet is around 2^168. Someone has worked out an arithmetic encoding >scheme that can represent the entire 64 square board + castling rights and ep >status into 168 bits. It might be possible to improve on this slightly. But >so what? That number is way big enough. > >If you want to talk about chess as a game, however, then this number is >_way_ small. Because chess positions have a history that is important to >the game outcome (ie repetitions, 50 move counter, etc.) You could have >the same position with zillions of different "history values" If it will do in the future, it will be a solid chess computer, right? ;-) Eran
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