Long time coming

I just made a capture as Black in one of my online games on move #19, and it's the first capture of the game by either side.  No world record, to be sure, but it might be a personal record.  We've both got real development too, so this isn't a case of 19 moves of a couple pieces chasing each other around out in the open.

I looked back at 10 of my ~100 games on chess.com and the average move number for first capture was 6.6 .  Clearly that will vary for individuals, as I play King's Gambit when possible, which could have a capture on move 2 (although none of the games in the average I just gave were King's Gambit), and many Sicilians have captures on move 3.

I just found a couple fun tidbits on Wikipedia:

1)  The latest first capture they know of was in a World Junior Championship game in 1969, in which the first capture of the game was 94.bxc5 .

2)  A game in 1966 was drawn under the 50-move rule at move 70, with no captures having been made in the game.

Wow - superb facts there Sir!

My average number of moves before capture is 3 or 4 I would think.

I usually hang my queen by the third.

Mine is always hanging by a thread.

Regards,

Lou