How Many Games of Chess: Exact answer given!

Eli Brandt ebrandt at jarthur.cs.hmc.edu
Tue Apr 5 17:12:57 PDT 1994


> I would counter that this was a single game irrispective of how many times it
> could be moved since the outcome is the same.

This would really simplify the strategy of chess...
	Smirnov		Jagermeister
1.	Wn !!		Rsgn
Commentary: Smirnov's "White wins" opening gave him an early and
dramatic tactical advantage.  Jagermeister showed foresight and
played "Black resigns".

This whole argument is getting rather weird, its topicality aside.
There are a finite number of legal positions in chess.  If any
shows up a third time, the game is over.  Thus we have a bound on
the length of a legal chess game.  Hence the number of games is
finite, and we don't have to quibble about whether it's countably
or uncountably infinite.

   Eli   ebrandt at hmc.edu







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