How Many Possible Chess Games Are There?

JT2007

Jan 23, 2021, 2:55 PM | 5

The answer: the number of atoms in the universe times the number of atoms in the universe. But that is very incomplete. The Shannon Number is one of the measurements of how many possibilities there are.

Howard Shannon thought that there are, on average, 30 possible moves for a side. With thirty moves per game, it works out to 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000c possibilities, or 10^120. That's a lot. But I think the number is even larger. He said that the average game is thirty moves long, which is true for real chess, but a chess game could go on for about 6,000 moves (https://www.chess.com/blog/kurtgodden/the-longest-possible-chess-game).

If the 30 moves per side holds on, we have

6,000

------

which is 200. So I think that the real number of chess games is the exponent 120 x 200, which is 24,000.

So 10^24,000.

Which is:

10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Which is about 300 times more chess games than atoms in the universe.

The atoms in a pawn

the hand (65,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms) holding the pawn

the body with the hand

the building with the person

the city with the building

the state with the city

the country with the state

the continent which has the country

the world which has the continent

the solar system with the Earth

the Orion-Sygnus Arm containing the solar system

the galaxy with the spiral

which is part of 125 BILLION galaxies in the observable universe.

And all those atoms are still only 1/300 of the chess games possible.

Thanks for reading.

How Many Possible Chess Games Are There?

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