3 December 2021
There are different views on how many chess games there possibly are but a rough number of around 10,000,000.
What is the Shannon number?
The Shannon number is the number of Chess games that can be played. The number of chess moves would depend on both players as they can opt for a variety of movies.
Of course, moving the knight two steps vertically and one step horizontally would seem to be the most popular choice followed by the bishop moving any number of steps diagonally.
The pawn can also be moved but that piece would usually be reserved for the endgame when you will try and race your pawns to the other end so that they can become queens.
There are times when it would be down to who has more pawns. When you think it would be alright to sacrifice your pawns at the start, you will end up regretting that decision in the end.
It is alright to try a variety of openings and then decide from there which one you will use when you are White since the white always moves first. Black is always known as the defense but not if you turn things in your favor.
Hence, that is what you should always aim to do with the set of moves that you would want to do. You need to keep in mind your opponent is always thinking ahead of you so you should really think about what your opponent would do when you move certain pieces. As a result, you would be able to get the upper hand when that would happen as that would transpire right in the middle of people cheering you both to do your very best. Shannon studied how the game would unfold with five different openings.
It turns out it can go in a variety of directions depending on what each player does. Some can be silly moves that could lead to bigger things that you were not able to expect.
Fortunately, some are moves that can be quite expected. He concluded on average, there are about 40 total moves that each player makes before a king is a checkmate or someone is overwhelmed up to the point that this person decides to give up.
How many chess games are possible?
Believe it or not, the number of chess games possible is greater than the number of atoms there are in the universe. Claude Shannon pointed out the fact that there are 30 legal moves that you can make whether you are white or black. It should not take too long for either player to think of a move though. Besides, time would run out for one of you and you would automatically lose.
It is doubtful one player would reach the maximum number of games that a player can play. After all, you will probably decide to move on from the sport before deciding to play even more.
It is even possible that you would play with different people and then look at what the outcome can be. There are even some chess games that don’t last too long, especially the ones that end in 10 or fewer moves. It happens when one of the players is not that alert to what is happening in the game.
The other player could be closing in on the queen and he is just that into it yet. Since chess is so fun, you could have played a large number of games without even noticing it. Before you know it, your win-loss record on free websites can become quite impressive. It is amazing to be somewhat of a game that would exercise your mind at times when you don’t really know what else to do.
During those times, you’d want to enhance your skills by reading some books which is how the Netflix show ‘Queen’s Gambit’ became so popular. Despite the fact that the actors were hardly familiar with the game at the start, they are pretty good at what they do so they made you think they are good at it.
It is one of those things that would make you realize you are having fun and you can do other things while playing chess. It is not important to spend so much time on something that you are having so much fun with. There are times when you want to play more when you win and when you lose, you would want another game in order to avenge that loss.
What can you compare the number of legal chess moves to?
The number of atoms on the planet can be compared to the number of legal chess moves. This is due to the fact that they are both right up there in terms of pretty high numbers. We all know how fun chess can be as you can just start a game out of the blue.
It would bring back good memories with some of your friends. What’s fun about chess is that it is a battle of wits. One wrong move and you can automatically lose the game so you must really think about what the opponent is planning while having a plan of your own. It is a lot easier said than done to win the game and you should know that you must use all the pieces to your advantage.
It is awesome how the number of legal chess moves is that many as we need to go back several centuries from when this game was invented. As time passed by, no new moves were added but some rules were including being able to play under time pressure. Some professional chess tournaments would establish rules where you can learn a few moves as time passes by.
There are some moves that are only made by advanced players but they’re not really that important. Some veteran players will trick you into making some moves and when you fall right into their trap then you would suddenly lose tons of pieces. You would fall into a hole so deep that you would find a hard time getting out of it.
