You’ve probably heard the mind-bending fact that there are more possible chess moves than atoms in the known universe.
At first, this seems utterly impossible. After all, the universe is unfathomably vast, containing billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars.
How could the finite confines of a chessboard possibly contain more possibilities?
Well, believe it or not, it’s true. The math is irrefutable.
A single chess game contains an almost infinite array of possible moves and positions.
When you consider all the possible paths a chess game could take from start to finish, the numbers become astronomical. The possibilities are endless.
According to a source, the number of possible move variations in the game of chess is estimated to be between 10^111 and 10^123 positions, including moves that are against the rules.
This is known as the Shannon Number, named after Claude Shannon, the inventor of Information Theory.
On the other hand, the number of atoms in the observable universe is estimated to be around 10^80.
Therefore, there are more possible variations of chess games than there are atoms in the observable universe.
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