Author: Norm Pollock
Date: 19:54:20 03/19/05
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On March 19, 2005 at 13:34:39, William H Rogers wrote: >There have been a lot of really big numbers quoted for how many moves in a chess >game. I think the question should be how many legal moves are in a chess game >and how many lead to a final result. We all know that of the begining moves that >are possible a large percentage are a waste of time that can lead to a quick >mate by strong players. >I think we must wait until a few million more games have been played and then >compare the results of all of them to get a real idea of how many moves are >really involved in a chess game. >Bill If at each ply of a 120 ply game each player has 30 possible reasonable moves that do not lead to a quick mate (unless we are at or near the 120th move), then the number of permutations of possible "reasonable" moves is given by 30^120. A move that is a waste of time is ok as long as it is not destructive. By destructive I mean a move that leads to a quick mate or severely weakens one's game such as giving away a queen without compensation. Of course not all games are 60 moves and I was only using that as an example. The point I was hoping to make is that the number of reasonable move permutations in a typical chess match exceeds 1 googol.
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