yeah, me too, peace out. All the beginners play different stuff every game and make random moves for no reason. A lot of people at my school say stuff like:
"Free Pawn!!!" when they capture a pawn with their queen but get checkmated the next move, or move their pieces randomly, set up a terrible pawn structure, hang pieces. Therefore, it seems, due to all the people who play random stuff, every square is visited very often.
I think visited must refer to how often a piece is positioned at the square.
I personally believe f4 is actually visited quite often. In many of my games I try to get a f4 push in releasing my rook after I castled kingside and sometimes hoping for ..exf4 Bxf4 developing an undeveloped Bc1..
So the rare squares are probably outside the larger centre. a4 a5 h4 h5 seem most likely to me..
I think the square that is least frequently moved to is h1. White plays 0-0 and usually no one visits h1 until the endgame.
I chose h1 over h8 because Black needs to play the defensive moves ... Kh8 and ... Bg7-h8 a lot more often than White does.
a1 and a8 tend to get a lot of major piece traffic starting in the mid-to-late middle game.
I think the square that is least frequently moved to is h1. White plays 0-0 and usually no one visits h1 until the endgame.
I chose h1 over h8 because Black needs to play the defensive moves ... Kh8 and ... Bg7-h8 a lot more often than White does.
a1 and a8 tend to get a lot of major piece traffic starting in the mid-to-late middle game.
a1 vs h1 is tough. In favor of a1, Kh1 is played often enough to get off that diagonal -- Sicilians are very often played, and Kh1 is played in a lot of sicilians. Shrug*
@ ozzie_c_cobblepot:
but what if 'visiting' is when pieces go TO a square, not just rest on it. For example, Bb7-a8 would be 'visiting' a8.
Yes, if you define it like this, then it might be something like a2 or a7.
We have the resources, people. Someone can do this.
We have the resources, people. Someone can do this.
a2/a7 makes a lot of sense. Was it easy to rule out h2/h7 though?
On kingside vs queenside equivalent -- K side castling is more common, and there are a lot of attacks / maneuvers there. Q side opening up and getting a lot of maneuvers done is also common. Does a bishop or king go to a2 more often than h2. Also rooks may infiltrate there. Do rooks double more often on a files than h files?! Hard to say...
We have the resources, people. Someone can do this.
On it.
Update: got a quick and dirty program written. I ran it on 49 of my games, and I get h1/h8 tied for least visits (7), followed by h2/a1 with 8. I need to work on this some to handle en passant correctly, and I need a better data set.
Okay, assuming I fixed the en passant issue correctly, I have the results for a file of 827 Bobby Fischer games I found. Least frequently visited squares are:
Most frequently visited squares are:
Now, that's counting a square each time a piece is moved onto it. Personally, I think the set up should count. That is, all the squares on ranks 1, 2, 7, and 8 should start each game with a count of 1 visit for the piece starting on it. Using that definition, the least visited squares are:
Also, with that definition d7 becomes the second most visited square, with 2365 visits.
I want to do some more counts with games from the recent world championship cycle, but my rat is going nuts so I need to take a break.
Most visited square is 'Leicester Square' 
- least visited square, probly Albert Square - who the hell wanna go there ? 
Okay, assuming I fixed the en passant issue correctly, I have the results for a file of 827 Bobby Fischer games I found. Least frequently visited squares are:
a2 (262) a1 (268) a8 (282) a7 (296) g1/h1 (309)Most frequently visited squares are:
d4 (2775) e5 (2254) f6 (2223) d5 (2173) e4 (2101)Now, that's counting a square each time a piece is moved onto it. Personally, I think the set up should count. That is, all the squares on ranks 1, 2, 7, and 8 should start each game with a count of 1 visit for the piece starting on it. Using that definition, the least visited squares are:
a3 (696) h3 (703) h6 (785) h5 (802) h4 (820)Also, with that definition d7 becomes the second most visited square, with 2365 visits.
I want to do some more counts with games from the recent world championship cycle, but my rat is going nuts so I need to take a break.
Wow, very nice, and on such short notice.
I'm surprised h2 never made the list -- I guess the king or maybe a bishop lands there often enough. Or kingside attacks/sacrifices may center in on it. Interesting.
I ran counts for 500 games from the 2009 World Cup and 2009 WCC Qualifier. Least visited squares (without set up):
Most visited squares (without set up):
Least visited squares (with set up):
Counting set up again adds d7 to the most visit squares, at #3.
@orangehonda: h2 was the 8th least visited square in the Fischer games.
Counts for 220 games from the Fischer Random Chess games from the 2008 and 2009 Mainz Chess Classics. Least visited squares (without set up):
Most visited squares (without set up):
Least visited squares (with set up):
d7 again sneaks into third most visited spot when set up is counted.
When you say "visited" do you mean (1) the squares of every piece after each move... or (2) counting just 1 square per move. For example, Qc2 would mean +1 visit for c2. [A pawn probably can stay in the same square the entire game)]
I suppose once a pawn has moved on the a-file it will likely stay on that square for a while preventing another like-colored piece from occupying that square.
I will have to vote a3/a4/a5/a6 as being the most -unused- squares just because most players castle king-side and minor pieces are more likely to sequester there for an attack. Minor pieces seem to move more often than pawns on the flanks.
JOH ^_^
It ought to be the square formed by the entire board as a whole -- after all, everybody in the viscinity of a board is somewhere other than on the board! ;)
everybody in the viscinity of a board is somewhere other than on the board!
Wait... what?
a2
everybody in the viscinity of a board is somewhere other than on the board!
Wait... what?
The players either sit on their chairs or stand, and the spectators are usually around the board. In that sense, nobody visits the big square that bounds the 64 squares on the board -- they only visit the area around it. ;)
everybody in the viscinity of a board is somewhere other than on the board!
Wait... what?
The players either sit on their chairs or stand, and the spectators are usually around the board. In that sense, nobody visits the big square that bounds the 64 squares on the board -- they only visit the area around it. ;)
Ok, I see now 
And there are tons more beginners than titled players (or even strong club players) ... of course club/titled players play lots more games so... and also every strong player has probably played a few hundred games as a beginner while no beginners have played strong games... then again GMs only play what? 100-200 games a year? I play thousands. Well again this question is just too hard to answer, I give up
If I had to vote, a1 seems good to me, if it doesn't count because it's occupied h4/h5 also make a lot of sense to me. (Suggested by ozzie)