the 50 moves before any piece is captured/pawn moved is cancelled out by the fact that when all the pieces are exchanged a draw can be claimed. also, i am pretty sure that a draw must be claimed for a game to be drawn by the 50-move rule. So that means the final answer is 5900 ...[text shortened]... t a relief that would be! all those moves for just a stinkin draw!?))no, no my friend. here is how it goes: there are *6* pawn moves before promotion, and as it turns out, the most efficient way of playing it out is to sacrifice 8 pieces (4 from each side) to double all the pawns on alternating files, so they wont have to capture each other to promote. because a pawn must move 1 square foward to capture, the 8 pieces in a way go to waste (cuz it takes a pwawn (thats how the chessmaster says 'pawn'!) move and a piece capture in one move, instead of waiting 50 moves to do both, if this makes sense). so there are 16(pawns total)*6(pawn moves per pawn)=96. then besides the kings there are 6 pieces left. If u recall correctly the 50 move rule states after 50 moves if a pawn is not moved or **piece is not captured** the game is drawn (and i believe the players don't have a choice, it's a draw even if no one claims it (someone please correct me if im wrong)). So after all the pawn moves are finished with there are 22 pieces on the board to get rid of: the 16 promoted pawns and the 6 original pieces. that makes for 96(pawn moves)+22(pieces to be captured)=118 (moves that reset the 50 move rule)*50(moves per session)=5900+ 50(moves before pawns are moved or pieces captured. note that it is 50, not 49 because if on blacks' 50th move the conditions are met (piece captured, pawn moved) then the rule is reset)
p.s. so unless someone can tell me if there are any chess programs that can play games up to the maximum possible moves (and of course tell me which one can) im not going to have a downloadable game demonstrating this is true.
Since I can't even count to 6 right now I have used other sources...
http://myweb.cableone.net/theyowans/chess_training.htm
"The longest Chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves"
http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm
"Did you know?
1 The longest Chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves."
i believe that is incorrect! and if it was correct it would be more accurate to say 5949.5 moves (id count it as 5950). they also frased it wrong, as the longest chess games theoretically possible could be billions of moves long i.e. 1.a3 h6 2.Ra2 Rh7 3.Ra8 Rh8 4.Ra2 Rh7 etc. or any of the other undecillion+ moves, a player could claim a draw, but that doesnt mean the game is over 😉