Infinite possibilities in a game of chess?
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GreenLaser
Feb 12, 2008
0
#41
RetGuvvie98 wrote, "lets go get a beer and play some chess and forget all that." Yes, let us go from an infinite number of excuses to not play chess to an infinite number of reasons to drink beer.
Wow. I'm kinda sorry for writing this topic. All I wanted was a simple yes or no. But I feel like I sent of a nuclear bomb.
But no matter, most of your answers were quite interesting. I enjoy reading these conversations.
But no matter, most of your answers were quite interesting. I enjoy reading these conversations.
dustbowler wrote: Manipulated wrote:
If you think 10^120 is a big number think again.
Say you have two balloons and a pipe between them that allow a gas to go from one balloon to the other.
If you have one molecule, the chance that this molecule is in the left balloon is 1/2. If you have two molecules, that chance is now 1/4. For three molecules it is 1/8, for one mole it is 1/2^(6.022x10^23). Now that is 2^(6.022x10^23) odds against 1. That's a huge number, now consider that you could have two gigantic balloons with millions of moles inside...
shut up. we're talking about chess.
Come on now, we don't need that.
why would there be moles inside a balloon? don't they stay underground?
I thought they were just abbreviating molecules, but I digress. It could be moles.
i didn't know about the 50 move rule...and for all practical purposes, it IS infinite. No single person will ever play even a significant fraction of 10^120 games. That's the awesome thing about chess. You always start with the same 32 pieces with the same 64 squares, but you almost never see the same game twice.
It is not infinite, but a big number, so it seems like infinity.
Does anybody know what this really big number is??
Feb 25, 2008
0
#48
darkmage2007 wrote:
There are an infinite number of moves if neither player claims a draw by 3-move repetition or the 50-move rule. A draw is only automatic with insufficient material and stalemate. As for checkmates, I think there are a finite amount of checkmating positions, but the sequence of moves to obtain that checkmate is infinite. For example:
1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#
1. Nf3 Nc6 2. Ng1 Nb8 3. f3 e5 4. g4 Qh4#
1. Nc3 Nf6 2. Nb1 Ng8 3. f3 e5 4. g4 Qh4#
Of course, if either side would claim a draw when possible, then the possibilities are finite.
Still not infinite, but the numbers grow rapidly. Consider that Fool's Mate (Black checkmates white on move two with Qh4#) can be achieved via eight different move sequences. White can deliver checkmate on the third move via 347 possible move sequences.
See http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~flab/chess/statistics-games.html
The-Black-Night wrote:
Do you believe that there is an infinite amount of checkmates and moves in a mid game during a single game of chess? Please tell your opinion
Impossibl, infinity can't grow from numbers that end (even in very big numbers)
I think that the possibilities are NOTinfinite, but they are probably inumerable.
[COMMENT DELETED]
NOTHING IS INFINITE
There are “infinite” combinations due to free will/choice. Mathematically speaking chess is finite. There are only so many combinations. But you don’t know what choice your opponent will play. They won’t always make the best move. Some times on purpose, sometimes in human error. The game is still finite, even with all the “fractoring” possibilities, but there are infinite opponents and choice is involved in each move. No two people are the same. This element of choice makes the game “infinite” (or unpredictable and chaotic). That’s how Grand Masters defeat super computers. Otherwise the correct way would win every game combination. It doesn’t. I might not be explaining this quite right, but I believe this is what we find fascinating in chess. The “infinite” in the “finite,” or choice. There are only so many combinations in a game. But we can’t predict our opponents (like we can’t perfectly predict the weather), and that random element makes the game infinite. We still play it all these years later, and probably always will. No one/ nothing wins every game. Therefore it is “infinite.” The combination are finite. The play is infinite in the broadest sense when you bring individual human free will, human error, and creativity into it.
Anything that involves “play” has both a finite and infinite element. After all, that’s what we are “playing” with. Play implies the infinite creative (chaos) in the finite (order). Language works the same way. Most things do.
The game and board have rules and limits. The “play” does not.
Jul 29, 2022
0
#54
Even if there were no limit to the number of moves, there couldn't be infinite possibilities. There are a finite number of squares and a finite number of pieces. You can't get infinite configurations from that.
The number of possible chess games lies between 10^29241 and 10^34082
https://wismuth.com/chess/longest-game.html
The number of legal chess positions is 10^44.
https://github.com/tromp/ChessPositionRanking
The number of positions without promotions to pieces not previously captured is 10^37.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2112.09386.pdf
The 10^120 moves figure actually only assumes that each game is 40 moves. Since the longest possible chess game within the rules of 50 moves is over 11 thousand moves- you can only imagine how much bigger that number actually is. Probably several hundreds of orders of magnitude bigger.
lol
Aug 21, 2023
0
#58
Not infinite, but big enough that you can’t even begin to comprehend the size of the number
by brain rn
BOOM!!!!