Checkers has 500 trillion play positions, but ends perfectly with a draw.

I found this interesting today. The University of Alberta has used dozens of computers for 18 years to compute every possible position play for checkers. Yep…checkers. In the end they computationally proved that there are 500 trillion (that’s 500,000,000,000,000,000,000) play positions and if each player makes no mistakes throughout a game it ends in a draw. Asked if they will try to determine chess, Jonathan Schaeffer computer scientist at the university, said he didn’t think so without new technology. Chess is guessed to have billion-trillion-trillion-trillion positions (1 followed by 45 zeroes).

Seems kind of deflating.

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