how many different moves are there?

are we talking like 100k+ or 1mil+. how many variables are in a game of chess ?

Way way way more than that.Think in many many billions.

After just three moves (3 for white and 3 for black ) the number is in the tens of millions

watch film "pawn sacrifes" . this film has moment where people talking about . i forgot

I think in trillions or zillions

that is crazy .. wasn't expecting that amount.

State-space complexity is the number of legal positions in a game. For chess, that number has around 48 digits.

Average branching factor is the average number of moves from a given position. For chess, that number is 35.

The short answer is: a lot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_complexity

He asked how many different moves, not positions.  Read the header.

The answer is less than you think:

Will use long algebraic to differentiate, as the move Kc1-d1 is different than the move Ke1-d1.

Pawn moves:  From the 2nd rank, there are 30 pawn moves, 8 of the a2-a3 format, 8 of the a2-a4 format, and 14 of the axb3 format.

From the third thru sixth ranks, take the 8 "2-square" moves away.  That's 22 possible pawn moves per rank.  From the 5th rank, I consider axb6(e.p.) the same as axb6.  If you don't, add 28 moves to the pawn count, 14 for White, 14 for Black.

From the 7th rank, multiply those 22 moves by 4, 22 cases of =Q, 22 of =R, 22 of =B, and 22 of =N.

That's 30 + 22 + 22 + 22 + 22 + 88, or 206 possible pawn moves.  Double that for Black since he goes in the opposite direction, so d4-d5 is a White pawn move, d5-d4 is a Black pawn move.  Different moves though.

TOTAL PAWN MOVES:  412 (440 if you consider axb6 and axb6(e.p.) different moves.

Other pieces, color doesn't count.  Nb4-d5 is Nb4-d5 whether the Knight is White or Black.

Therefore:

Knights:  16 squares with 8 moves, 16 squares with 6 moves, 20 squares with 4 moves, 8 squares with 3 moves, and 4 squares with 2 moves.

(16*8)+(16*6)+(20*4)+(8*3)+(4*2) = 128 + 96 + 80 + 24 + 8 = 336 Knight Moves

Bishops:  The outer ring, every square the Bishop has 7 moves.  From the next ring in, 9 moves.  Next ring in 11 moves.  Middle 4, 13 moves.

(13*4) + (11*12) + (9*20) + (7*28) = 560 Bishop Moves

Rooks:  Each square a Rook has 14 legal moves.  14*64 = 896 Rook Moves

Queens:  Queens have the total legal moves of a Rook or Bishop.  896+560 = 1456 Queen Moves

Kings:  Kings have 8 moves from the center 36 squares.  3 moves from the corners.  5 moves from the rest.

(36*8) + (24*5) + (4*3) = 420 King Moves

Then you have 4 more moves, White castles Kingside, Black castles Kingside, White Castles Queenside, Black castles Queenside.  Notation may look the same, but e1-g1 is not the same as e8-g8, just like pawn moves.

So in all:

412 (Pawns) + 336 (Knights) + 560 (Bishops) + 896 (Rooks) + 1456 (Queens) + 420 (Kings) + 4 (Castling) = 4084 Legal Moves, though only 3878 of them are available to each player (206 moves are impossible for White, 206 others are impossible for Black).

So depending on your definition of whether axb6 and axb6(e.p.) are the same or different, there are 4084 or 4112 different moves in the game of chess!

wow thanks for the in-depth post. I'll take your word for it, still a lot when you think of how small a board is. so if my question was positions.. still looking at billions?

7.

Trillions and zillions isn't even close.

According to the America’s Foundation for Chess, there are 169, 518, 829, 100, 544, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 ways to play the first 10 moves of a game of Chess.

The number of moves possible in a chess game is larger than the number of electrons in the known universe. (That's what I keep reading but I still can't bring myself to accept it)

zillion is not a word.

Too many to keep track, even for a quantum processor

Is so:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/zillion

The number of legal positions in a game is called its state-space complexity. which you can see for chess (and many other games) in the Wikipedia link I posted above. What the article means when it says "as log to base 10" is that a state-space complexity of 47 for chess means an estimate of nearly 10^47, or 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 positions.

Think of each possible move as a grain of sand. Take 1000 boxes of 1meter square each and fill them with sand. Empty all the boxes in Trafalgar Square , and spread the sand out, now climb up Nelson's column to the very top and you will shortly be removed by people with sedatives and tazers. You will also be liable to a hefty fine.

Not if we all do it! They can't take us all! Strength in numbers!

The English have weapons far worse than tazers though, there is the pouting and sarcasm to contend with. No amount of people can withstand a sarcastic pouting Englisman.

1000000000000000000+1000000000000000000

Only if they reach our ears, though. We Americans will bring cheeseburgers and eat them noisily to drown out the noise!