Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

As I understand it, the 50-move rule must be invoked by one of the players, lets assume our immortal players agree not to invoke that rule.

The 75-move rule is automatic, so that would be the limiting factor.

Note, that 75-move rule is only applicable after no pawn has moved or a piece has been captured. So our immortals can do a lot of shuffling things around.

I'm thinking that the number of moves of the longest game is going to be (16 pawns * 7 moves each + 16 pawns being captured + 14 other pieces each being captured, not the kings) * 75 moves for shuffling around = 10650 moves.

That's only 1 week at 1 move per minute! But given the permutations, it might take much longer to calculate the actual moves required to get to the end state :)



Here's an actual constructed game that is presumably as long as possible (with explanation): https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/168qmk6/longest_poss...


Pawns only get 6 moves :) But also they can't all make 6 moves because they can only move past each-other via capture, so half of them would get 5 moves instead (if you're counting all the captures), so that gives a maximum of ~8850.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: