I'm more than 3 times old enough. Here's to being 21, 44 years ago lol.
Next year I'll be four times old enough. 72.
You haven't told us where your moles are yet.
With my badgers.
@6255
"No-one can memorise a million positions"
++ All humans speak at least one language.
A language contains about a million words.
Why could a human not memorise 10,000 games i.e. about a million positions?
Standard match preparation is to study all games of the opponent.
I remember learning at school that typical vocabularies of average Frenchmen was 1500 words.
I see someone downvoted my post criticising your five-year plan and other extravagancies. Was that an opportunity for me to quote my own post?
@6283
There are actors who know plays of 30,000 words by heart.
There are humans who have memorised 100,000 digits of pi, which has no pattern.
10,000 chess games should be feasible.
Even knowing 1000 perfect chess games should provide an advantage.
To become an expert at something, you should do it, at minimum, 10,000 hours, there are games like chess that nothing can be perfect at, at least at our current technology, as if you want to be perfect at chess, you have to know the best move in every position by heart, not the best moves according to stockfish, no, THE best moves in a position, as not even the best chess engines are perfect, for that, you would have to know every single possible position,. With 64 squares, and 24 pieces, that number is enormous, in fact, for the first 10 moves, you can get something like 196 quintillion move orders or some number like that, what about 78 moves? Now that's a random number but, there has been chess games, between engines, with more than 200 moves!
...
There are humans who have memorised 100,000 digits of pi, which has no pattern.
...
^ That is fascinating. (Even my moles are fascinated.)
When I was young I memorised enough to show off a little (can't recall how many, may have been as few as 30). I got the digits from a sci-fi novel because I judged (correctly) that the author would not have put wrong ones in. The question is what novel was it? It is possible it was Time for the Stars, but it could easily have been another I also read as a young teenager.
(Now I only know 14 digits after the decimal point. More than enough for most practical use.)
Seems a colossal waste of time to me, for once again few, if anyone, will be impressed. Playing some chess would be a better use of that time perhaps.
haha! it's funny that you assume chess can never be solved. i've come close to it, i'm a mathematician graduate student in harvard university.
my thesis dissertation will be on solving the problem of chess. i'm close to solving it so it will be solved soon
I memorised a little over 4000 digits many years ago, back at high school. Sadly it didn't impress the girls as much as I would have liked
Maybe it was your insistence on reciting all 4000 digits that they were not impressed with? I mean, how else could you not be impressed by someone who memorizes 4000 digits of pi?
I once memorized the first 100 digits.....but not in order.
Your generation being?
I memorised a little over 4000 digits many years ago, back at high school. Sadly it didn't impress the girls as much as I would have liked
The Australian record is something like ~10k digits if I am remembering correctly. One day I might try to re-learn them and attempt the record.
@6288
"you have to know the best move in every position by heart"
++ Or deduce it by logic reasoning. It is easier to remember a chess game than digits of pi:
chess has logic while pi is random without any pattern.
"THE best moves in a position" ++ A good move i.e. no error (?) is enough
"you would have to know every single possible position" ++ Only the relevant positions
"With 64 squares, and 24 pieces, that number is enormous"
++ 64 squares and 32 pieces give 10^44 legal positions of which 10^17 relevant
"for the first 10 moves, you can get something like 196 quintillion move orders"
Without transpositions : (4^11 - 1) / (4 - 1) = 1398101 positions
With transpositions: e^4 = 55 positions
Geometric average: 8737 positions
what about 78 moves?
Without transpositions: (4^79 - 1) / (4 - 1) = 10^47, more than there are legal positions
With transpositions: 55 positions
Geometric average: 10^24 positions, too high as the number without transpositions is too high
"there has been chess games, between engines, with more than 200 moves!"
++ Engine versus engine play on too long in totally drawn positions.
That is one of the tasks of the humans: to terminate calculations in clearly drawn positions.
Average game in ICCF correspondence: 39 moves.
@6294
"i'm a mathematician graduate student in harvard university.
my thesis dissertation will be on solving the problem of chess.
i'm close to solving it so it will be solved soon"
++ Interesting. Can you tell us some more?
Don't be ridiculous. 
When I was young I memorised enough to show off a little (can't recall how many, may have been as few as 30). I got the digits from a sci-fi novel because I judged (correctly) that the author would not have put wrong ones in. The question is what novel was it? It is possible it was Time for the Stars, but it could easily have been another I also read as a young teenager.
(Now I only know 14 digits after the decimal point. More than enough for most practical use.)
I read scifi avidly up until the age of about 16. That brings us to 1967. Sci-fi was changing and I didn't like the new stuff. More like fantasy and full of witches and dragons. Rubbish, so I stopped reading it. I recall a story that fits your decription but don't recall which it was. Poul Anderson? Just a guess.
Might have been Contact by Charles Sagan 1985, which I wouldn't have dreamed of reading. I suggested Poul Anderson because he was a physicist and used his knowledge in stories. Not my favourite author. Preferred Simak and Sheckley, to name a couple. Asimov also was scientifically bent but he was highly pedantic by nature and so had a poor and over-simplistic writing style although his stories had many good ideas. I doubt he would have tried to get away with 30 digits of pi.
@6294
"i'm a mathematician graduate student in harvard university.
my thesis dissertation will be on solving the problem of chess.
i'm close to solving it so it will be solved soon"
++ Interesting. Can you tell us some more?
Lol. That's a troll account named "kingbootyhole", a few hours old. The fact that you are ready to trust that this is a grad student at Harvard close to solving chess, with zero supporting evidence, just shows how/why you were taken in by Svheshnikov's offhand claim.
@Optimissed, I know Contact has pi in it, but this was way too late and not consistent with my memory! It has to be a novel published by the mid-1970s.
@6288
"you have to know the best move in every position by heart"
++ Or deduce it by logic reasoning. It is easier to remember a chess game than digits of pi:
chess has logic while pi is random without any pattern. (https://bellard.org/pi/)
"THE best moves in a position" ++ A good move i.e. no error (?) is enough
With the Black king anywhere in the a1-f6 square and White to move, Syzygy will give Kh8 as a good move (no error). With the White king instead on h8 he will give Kg8 as a good move. Those moves are NOT enough.
If you follow Syzygy's best moves, they are enough.
"you would have to know every single possible position" ++ Only the relevant positions
With a correct meaning assigned to "relevant" and the understanding that "position" meant a node in some solution, that would be true. Your definitions of both "position" and "relevant" are irrelevant to this point.
"With 64 squares, and 24 pieces, that number is enormous"
++ 64 squares and 32 pieces give 10^44 legal positions of which 10^17 relevant
"for the first 10 moves, you can get something like 196 quintillion move orders"
Without transpositions : (4^11 - 1) / (4 - 1) = 1398101 positions
With transpositions: e^4 = 55 positions
Geometric average: 8737 positions
what about 78 moves?
Without transpositions: (4^79 - 1) / (4 - 1) = 10^47, more than there are legal positions
With transpositions: 55 positions
Geometric average: 10^24 positions, too high as the number without transpositions is too high
I need @Elroch's laughing bean man at this point.
Apart from the ludicrous "calculations", you've still managed to "disprove" your own point.
"there has been chess games, between engines, with more than 200 moves!"
++ Engine versus engine play on too long in totally drawn positions.
Attaboy @tygxc - you show 'em how to do it!
That is one of the tasks of the humans: to terminate calculations in clearly drawn positions.
Average game in ICCF correspondence: 39 moves.
But only by taking shortcuts like this.
Now, will you stop wriggling and post your calculations for the games here? Then the rest of us can sensibly discuss the topic.
@6306
"disprove your own point" ++ No, proved my own point.
"Edwards, Jon (2525) vs. Miroslav Michálek (2480)" ++ This is clear human error.
Here is a more typical game: a draw in 35 moves, optimal play from both sides.
https://www.iccf.com/game?id=1164259
@6283
There are actors who know plays of 30,000 words by heart.
There are humans who have memorised 100,000 digits of pi, which has no pattern.
10,000 chess games should be feasible.
Even knowing 1000 perfect chess games should provide an advantage.
Not much if you don't also understand them.