alt Hacker NewsOne thing I always wondered is how many moves, on average, do you have to play before reaching a position that has never before seen on Earth?
Or maybe the question should be what percent of games reach a position that has never before been seen?
Replies
tromp • yesterday at 10:31 PM
I think that the average chess game played between humans contributes between 20 and 40 new positions (note that a 30 move chess games has 60 plies).
bdamm • yesterday at 10:32 PM
You'd probably need to make a determination of the skill of the players. A very strong player vs a novice could be scholar's mate most of the time.
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Apparently ~75% of the positions in the lichess database (as of 6 years ago) have only been seen once ever. Average game length is 30-40 moves, so for the completely average player it would be like 10+ moves I suppose. The stronger the players the longer it will take: I found some comments suggesting 20+ for high level players.