10 Dec '02 21:32>
Just for my own curiousity (and because this sort of came up in
another thread,) I was wondering if we could figure out a formula to
calculate the total number of possible legal positions on a
chessboard. There are a bunch of criteria to consider, so here are the
ones that I was able to come up with:
A chessboard has 64 squares, 32 black and 32 white.
Both sides must have a king.
Neither side can have more than 8 pawns.
The sum of the number of queens, knights, rooks, bishops and pawns
cannot exceed 15 for either side (think pawn promotion.)
White cannot have any pawns on rank 1, black cannot have any on
rank 8.
Other criteria are more complex: I can't imagine any possible play
resulting in, for example, eight white pawns on rank 5 and eight black
pawns on rank 4.
Can anyone think of more that I've missed? Or derive a general
formula including these (and any additional) criteria that can calculate
the total number of positions?
-mike
another thread,) I was wondering if we could figure out a formula to
calculate the total number of possible legal positions on a
chessboard. There are a bunch of criteria to consider, so here are the
ones that I was able to come up with:
A chessboard has 64 squares, 32 black and 32 white.
Both sides must have a king.
Neither side can have more than 8 pawns.
The sum of the number of queens, knights, rooks, bishops and pawns
cannot exceed 15 for either side (think pawn promotion.)
White cannot have any pawns on rank 1, black cannot have any on
rank 8.
Other criteria are more complex: I can't imagine any possible play
resulting in, for example, eight white pawns on rank 5 and eight black
pawns on rank 4.
Can anyone think of more that I've missed? Or derive a general
formula including these (and any additional) criteria that can calculate
the total number of positions?
-mike