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Subject: movement and complexity in chess... (somewhat long post)

Author: Dan Ellwein

Date: 00:08:52 03/03/00


was reading through the posts ( as my usual habit of late) and in one of the
posts someone made the comment about the sheer complexity of chess...

that got me thinking (can be dangerous, i know... :)) about the subtle
interaction of the movement of the pieces...

i came up with a list of 32 distinct movements in chess...

wanted to bounce this off of the group and see if this (if only somewhat)
reflected some of that complexity there is in chess...

Movement       Moves
              (One Side)

1   a1 [K]  = 420
2   b1 [B1] = 98
3   b1 [B2] = 98
4   c1 [QR] = 644 (Q:420 R:224)
5   f1 [P]  = 40
6   g1 [P]  = 56
7   h1 [P]  = 14
8   i1 [P]  = 22

9   b2 [B1] = 72
10  b2 [B2] = 72
11  c2 [QR] = 528 (Q:336 R:192)
12  c2 [N]  = 336
13  d2 [K]  = 1
14  d2 [R2] = 0
15  e2 [K]  = 1
16  f2 [P]  = 8

17  b3 [B1] = 50
18  b3 [B2] = 50
19  c3 [QR] = 420 (Q:260 R:160)
20  e3 [R1] = 0

21  b4 [B1] = 32
22  b4 [B2] = 32
23  c4 [QR] = 320 (Q:192 R:128)

24  b5 [B1] = 18
25  b5 [B2] = 18
26  c5 [QR] = 228 (Q:132 R:96)

27  b6 [B1] = 8
28  b6 [B2] = 8
29  c6 [QR] = 144 (Q:80 R:64)

30  b7 [B1] = 2
31  b7 [B2] = 2
32  c7 [QR] = 68 (Q:36 R:32)

              Moves: 3,810


Explanation of Code

Column 1: number of movements in chess - 32

Column 2: a1 - c7

a b c  are noncapture/capture movements           (K,Q,R,B,N)
d e f  are noncapture only movements              (Castle and P)
  g h  are capture only movements                 (P - includes en-passant)
    i  is a noncapture only/capture only movement (P - pawn promotion)

1 - 7 is the length (in number of squares) a piece moves on the board

a1
noncapture/capture movement with restriction; length of movement 1 square

restriction
cannot be adjacent to opposing piece of like movement
cannot move to a square controlled by an opposing piece
cannot take opposing piece protected by an opposing piece

b1
noncapture/capture movement with limitation; length of movement 1 square

limitation
diagonal movement limits movement to 32 squares

c1
noncapture/capture movement; length of movement 1 square

f1
noncapture only movement; length of movement 1 square

g1
capture only movement; length of movement 1 square

h1
capture only movement special case; length of movement 1 square

special case
piece of like movement advances two (2) squares adjacent to opposing piece of
like movement
capture must occur immediate
result of capture is same as in g1

i1
noncapture only/capture only movement; length of movement 1 square

piece is replaced by friendly piece with following exception
not a piece of own likeness
not a piece with an a1 movement

b2
same as b1 except length of movement 2 squares

c2
same as c1 except length of movement 2 squares

c2 [N]
multi-directional movement; length of movement 2 squares not in same direction

this movement along with castling makes chess a three-dimensional game

when the knights are off the board
and castling no longer possible
chess becomes a two-dimensional game

d2
caslte King-side
multi-directional movement; length of movement 2 squares not in same direction
[R2] rook is the king rook

e2
castle Queen-side
multi-directional movement; length of movement 2 squares (King only)

f2
same as f1 except length of movement 2 squares

b3
same as b1 except length of movement 3 squares

c3
same as c1 above except length of movement 3 squares

e3
noncapture only movement; length of movement 3 squares
[R1] rook is the Queen rook

b4
same as b1 except length of movement is 4 squares

c4
same as c1 except length of movment is 4 squares

b5
same as b1 except length of movement is 5 squares

c5
same as c1 except length of movement is 5 squares

b6
same as b1 except length of movement is 6 squares

c6
same as c1 except length of movement is 6 squares

b7
same as b1 except length of movement is 7 squares

c7
same as c1 except length of movement is 7 squares


Column 3: piece(s) associated with the particular movement


Column 4: number of moves associated with the particular movement

for example:

a1
King movement
place King on 64 squares
count number of moves for each square

 4 x 3 =  12
24 x 5 = 120
36 x 8 = 288

64       420 moves associated with movement a1...


i have a table in a *.doc (Word 97) format
that shows the above a lot better than i explain it
does not paste inside a post very well, though...

thanks...

pilgrimdan




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