Is Chess solvable?

[VORP]

There are a finite amount of moves so my initial reaction was yes, but I don’t know enough about the game to know how much uncertainty over your opponents’ future moves affects things. So is Chess (theoretically at least) solvable?

[Not sure if this is the right forum. Feel free to move it.]

[valenzuela]

yes

[thylacine]

[ QUOTE ]
There are a finite amount of moves so my initial reaction was yes, but I don’t know enough about the game to know how much uncertainty over your opponents’ future moves affects things. So is Chess (theoretically at least) solvable?

[Not sure if this is the right forum. Feel free to move it.]

[/ QUOTE ]

A solution (and a proof that it is a solution) might collapse under its own weight into a black hole. Seriously.

[ChrisV]

Chess is a completely deterministic game, so in principle it is solvable. How could it not be? In practice, the number of legal positions is around 10 to the power of 42. To put that in perspective, assuming the universe is 15 billion years old, if 2 million billion billion positions were looked at by a computer every second since the beginning of the universe, it still wouldn't be done looking.

[valenzuela]

If the PC doesnt analyze clearly lost situation it can be done, btw this is just instinct

[MusashiStyle]

eh... I think I can answer this. There is really no need to solve chess. Anyone who has alot of knowledge and experience in the game will tell you: the result of perfect play is a draw:

check out the draw Percentages at this years Corus:

Group A (best players in the world): 61 % of games drawn

Group B (strong GM's): 40% games drawn

Group C (GM's IM's): 30 % games drawn

at the bottom of this page it shows the stats

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3638

[ChrisV]

I agree that chess played perfectly is almost certainly a draw. That doesn't tell us how to draw versus any given opening line, though, which is the point of solving the game.

[chezlaw]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree that chess played perfectly is almost certainly a draw. That doesn't tell us how to draw versus any given opening line, though, which is the point of solving the game.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hopefully it will be solved one-day and proven that black wins. Ultimate Zugzwang.

chez

[Magic_Man]

I believe all endgames with 5 pieces have been solved, and most or all of the 6 piece solutions. My far-better-at-chess-than-I friend says that a few interesting 7 piece configurations have been solved as well. Kings don't count as pieces here. Presumably, with enough computing power, these databases could continue to be expanded, but they grow at an amazing rate. You'd need enormous data storage and a very powerful computer.

[Al68]

Although there is a limited number of legal moves, you have to consider the total number of combinations of all those legal moves. This would give you the total number of all possible endgames. This number is greater than the total number of atoms in the universe.

No, I'm not joking and I'm not making it up.
This is why IBM cannot just have their chess computer analize all possible endgames and always win. There is not enough computing power in the world to do that.
They have to try to teach the computor how to play, analize the strength of their position, anticipate future moves, etc., similar to the way a human plays.