possible number of moves single chess match?

how do you calculate this? it has to be almost an infinite number?

Originally posted by big bern
how do you calculate this? it has to be almost an infinite number?

I'm sure its not even close to infinite, but Im guessing its really large. To calculate it...hmmmmmm, good luck with that.

Well technically a game could last forever because players aren't forced to claim draws based on repetition or the 50 move rule.

Otherwise there's 6*16 pawn moves available, it takes 8 captures to make all of them, leaving 22 more captures, totalling 128 resets of the 50 move rule. So the total number of moves possible would be a bit less than 6400.

I once read from a book that largest possible number of moves in a chess match is 5949 moves.

If the 50-move rule makes the game a draw automatically, then it is a finite number of possible moves in a game.
But if it is possible to go beyond the 50-move rule, by not claiming a draw, then the number can be arbitrarily large, i.e. infinite.

Originally posted by joe shmo
I'm sure its not even close to infinite, but Im guessing its really large. To calculate it...hmmmmmm, good luck with that.

There's no such thing as close to infinity. 😀

Originally posted by Palynka
There's no such thing as close to infinity. 😀

haha, very true!😵

Originally posted by FabianFnas
If the 50-move rule makes the game a draw automatically, then it is a finite number of possible moves in a game.
But if it is possible to go beyond the 50-move rule, by not claiming a draw, then the number can be arbitrarily large, i.e. infinite.

Yes,t hanks for that. I posed the same question years ago on this very same forum and figured the number to be astronomical as well. Once again, the forum had varied responses ranging from an exact number ( as we had here , again.) to abstract numbers that were uncalculable (sp) // anyway, this is simply a question posed to show what an amzing game chess truly is. Still there remains no answer to this question. regards, Big b.

Originally posted by big bern
anyway, this is simply a question posed to show what an amzing game chess truly is. Still there remains no answer to this question. regards, Big b.

Chess is indeed a remarkable game. With so few (?) rules, so 'unlimitied' alternatives!

In the game of chess there is 20 opening moves for white to choose from, black has as many. So only two haplf moves, before white has made his second move, there are 400 alternatives! Four half moves we're up to way over a thousands of alternatives! Fantastic isn't it?

In the Game of Go, with a board of 19x19 points, there are 391 places to put the first stone. In reality only 55 moves as you don't count symmetries. The opponent has 390 places to put his first stone. Now there are less symmetries, hom many depends of the first move. But say more or less 10.000 moves available for just the two first half-moves? This makes the Game of Go even more complicated than chess! And the rules are fewer than the ones of chess.

What about bridge? Checkers? MahJong? TickTacToe? Reversi?
Is the fascination about the game dependant of the number of alternativevaraints? Yes, I'm inclined to say yes. It's fascinating not to know how a game will progress from move one and onwards.

So if Game of Go is so deversified, why don't I find GoG more fascinating? Why is Chess #1 for me?
Answer: There are many more who layes Chess than GoG! I think...

Originally posted by FabianFnas
In the Game of Go, with a board of 19x19 points, there are 391 places to put the first stone.

I haven't counted them (I'm a fanatic Go-player, but not THAT fanatic), though 19x19 is 361.

Originally posted by TheMaster37
I haven't counted them (I'm a fanatic Go-player, but not THAT fanatic), though 19x19 is 361.

Perhaps I exaggerate a little...
361, of course 361

Man, Go. Never had 2 games even remotely similar in my 4 years of playing.

49 moves, pawn push, 49 moves, capture... so on. 30 pieces to be captured. Maximum number of legal pawn pushes is 88.
So 50x(30+88) = 5,900.
By the 5,900th move, the game has always been concluded.

Originally posted by zzyw
Well technically a game could last forever because players aren't forced to claim draws based on repetition or the 50 move rule.

Otherwise there's 6*16 pawn moves available, it takes 8 captures to make all of them, leaving 22 more captures, totalling 128 resets of the 50 move rule. So the total number of moves possible would be a bit less than 6400.

Then again you could go knight out, knight in for millions of moves by both players.