How many moves are there in chess! • page 2/4 • General Chess Discussion • lichess.org

@MatthewKCanada (#10) - good link! .. at least the issue is being discussed seriously there.

[adopting the wording from there:] I was wondering
• how many UCI (?) notations of different moves there might be
• ignoring any position, game or tree,
• considering source and target squares,
• considering moving, biting, moving and giving check, biting and giving check, moving and giving mate, biting and giving mate, different moves. But not considering which (kind of piece gets bitten. ( e.g. Ng5-f7, Ng5-f7+, Ng5-f7#, Ng5xf7, Ng5xf7+, Ng5xf7#, - but not Ng5xRf7, Ng5xBf7, Ng5xNf7, ..a.s.o. )
• considering d5xe6 e.p. different from d5xe6, d5xe6+e.p. different from d5xe6+ ; (and same for mate),

{ { I'm btw nothing but repeating the titlequestion explained by my op's examples... and we're not even in the off-topic section here } }

@MatthewKCanada (#10) - good link! .. at least the issue is being discussed seriously there. [adopting the wording from there:] I was wondering • how many UCI (?) notations of different moves there might be • ignoring any position, game or tree, • considering source and target squares, • considering moving, biting, moving and giving check, biting and giving check, moving and giving mate, biting and giving mate, different moves. But not considering which (kind of piece gets bitten. ( e.g. Ng5-f7, Ng5-f7+, Ng5-f7#, Ng5xf7, Ng5xf7+, Ng5xf7#, - but not Ng5xRf7, Ng5xBf7, Ng5xNf7, ..a.s.o. ) • considering d5xe6 e.p. different from d5xe6, d5xe6+e.p. different from d5xe6+ ; (and same for mate), { { I'm btw nothing but repeating the titlequestion explained by my op's examples... and we're not even in the off-topic section here } }

Toscani

#13

Add up the legal moves of a game.
https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/records/records.htm

Add up the legal moves of a game. https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/records/records.htm

MatthewKCanada

#14

The UCI calculation is exhaustive and there’s actually a link to a full list in the StackExchange article, so you can go look at it yourself. There are only 1968 possible UCI moves. They are all the possible moves from one square to another and all the possible promotions. That’s all you need.

For exhaustive algebraic notation where both sides are listed, I don’t think the number given in the article included checks or checkmates, so you’d probably have to double or triple everything and assume that everything is legally possible. At that point, I think it’s kind of a meaningless number because it only proves how inefficient algebraic notation is in comparison to UCI. There’s a reason that engines use UCI.

The UCI calculation is exhaustive and there’s actually a link to a full list in the StackExchange article, so you can go look at it yourself. There are only 1968 possible UCI moves. They are all the possible moves from one square to another and all the possible promotions. That’s all you need. For exhaustive algebraic notation where both sides are listed, I don’t think the number given in the article included checks or checkmates, so you’d probably have to double or triple everything and assume that everything is legally possible. At that point, I think it’s kind of a meaningless number because it only proves how inefficient algebraic notation is in comparison to UCI. There’s a reason that engines use UCI.

airfloo

#15

A rather philosophical approach might be "two": a winning and a losing; a first and a last; an efficient and an esthetic one.

a lot

How many moves are there .... ? Well it depends on the aim of the game and the limitations of the clock. Without a clock, and limiting rules, the moves are endless.

The longest game is in our profiles. We just have to search by move length.
Someone can now try to count the total legal moves for each player in this game.
You will then know the longest game the OP participated in.

https://lichess.org/EAbcZZ93/

How many moves are there .... ? Well it depends on the aim of the game and the limitations of the clock. Without a clock, and limiting rules, the moves are endless. The longest game is in our profiles. We just have to search by move length. Someone can now try to count the total legal moves for each player in this game. You will then know the longest game the OP participated in. https://lichess.org/EAbcZZ93/

DetectiveDumbo

#17

Hundreds. It may take six days without sleeping or more to total them up.

DuMussDieUhrDruecken

#18

@Toscani you com-ple-te-ly m i s r e a d the question. a deplorable level of communication.

you better delete your answer.

@Toscani you com-ple-te-ly m i s r e a d the question. a deplorable level of communication. you better delete your answer.

grammalu_son

#19

I remember reading in a chess book in my youth that there are more ways to play the first 12 moves of a game of chess than there are raindrops that would fall over greater Chicago in over a decade.

h2b2

#20

@grammalu_son said in #19:

I remember reading in a chess book in my youth that there are more ways to play the first 12 moves of a game of chess than there are raindrops that would fall over greater Chicago in over a decade.

most people in the world don't know how big chicago is and how much rain it gets.

@grammalu_son said in #19: > I remember reading in a chess book in my youth that there are more ways to play the first 12 moves of a game of chess than there are raindrops that would fall over greater Chicago in over a decade. most people in the world don't know how big chicago is and how much rain it gets.