That's pretty awesome. ECO has a long way to go.
Late GM/world champ Bobby Fischer was wrong about opening theory killing chess...
Capablanca would still crush all kids U14! (except maybe those idiot savants that can memorize multiple related complicated traps well beyond ply 9...I gotta think about that one).
ECO does not seek to catalog all opening positions. Even so the ECO classification scheme accommodates the vast majority of legal positions under the codes A00, B00, C00, D00, and E00. These are rare visitors to top events because they lack vigor for the most part. GM's use them on rare instances when surprise is necessary, or for other psychological purposes.
The instances of C42, on the other hand, probably exceed the sum of the 00 openings in each volume. Yet, I've heard novices tell beginners that C42 is a weak opening. Kramnik missed this lesson, of course.
One would like to think that with the sheer number of possibilities, that there are still some novelties in the openings (move 4 and before) yet to be developed/discovered and used at the GM level.
That shouldn't be a problem for TheGrobe. He just has to make sure all his games reach mate by move 3.
--Cystem 
One would like to think that with the sheer number of possibilities, that there are still some novelties in the openings (move 4 and before) yet to be developed/discovered and used at the GM level.
I recall that Kramnik uncorked a novelty on move four in his WCC defense against Leko. I'd need to look in my database for the details, though.
"like that piece of garbage Kasparov. But he's more like an idiot savant. Outside of chess, he knows nothing."
-Cough-
Brilliant! He even has an idea for Bush and Cheney to poll better numbers. Perhaps it could work for the current regime, too.
"like that piece of garbage Kasparov. But he's more like an idiot savant. Outside of chess, he knows nothing."
-Cough-
you quoted my quotes
I hadn't seen that Kasparov interview before-- thanks for the link!
--Cystem
"like that piece of garbage Kasparov. But he's more like an idiot savant. Outside of chess, he knows nothing."
-Cough-
It is funny to see Bill Maher at a loss for words, but Kasparov and Maher essentially have similar political views don't they? (democracy good, not-democracy bad)
Anyways, I was (slightly mis-)quoting some guy named Robert Fischer, who according to lore, apparently was able to beat some Russians a lot of times at chess even though he wasn't Russian, but this was some time ago.
There are at least hundreds, literally hundreds, of distinct legal chess positions.
958 million after the fourth move.
See "Statistics on Chess Positions," the work of a doctoral student in computer science at UC Berkeley. He finished his Ph.D. in 2007, but this site has been up since several years before that.