How many games are played in chess

The time to think about the next move is limited and is fixed by a chess clock. But despite this, each game can last an unlimited amount of time and parties. Let us turn to the history of chess tournaments to check whether this is actually so.

The very first international chess tournament (in the history of modern chess) was held in London in 1851 and brought together 16 participants. The tournament consisted of 4 circles, and such an outcome of the game as a draw did not count. In the first round, the participants played 3 games for the majority of victories, the subsequent circles consisted of 28 games in total. Thus, the number of parties was established by the tournament management.

The 1927 match, which marked the beginning of a new chess era thanks to the victory of Alexander Alekhine over the “unconditional favorite” Jose-Raul Capablanca, lasted 31 games! The match between world-famous grandmasters Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov ended in 24 games with Kasparov’s victory. The battle of the real “monsters” of the game of Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in 2000 ended in 15 games. A scandalous match in classical chess between Vladimir Kramnik and Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in 2006 ended after 12 games with an equal score of rivals. Another not very honest and impartial game took place at the height of the Cold War between the American chess player Robert Fisher and the Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky. Fisher defeated Spassky for 21 games.

The last match for the title of world chess champion ended in 12 games. By the way, this match attracted tremendous attention of people, because the strongest grandmaster of the planet, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and Russian Alexander Karjakin, who entered the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest grandmaster in chess history, fought on the “chess field”.

As you can see, a chess match can last any amount of time and games. The number of games can be set at the beginning of the game, but only the number of victories can be determined, and how many games will be required will depend on the participants in the game. Therefore, if you play at an amateur level or arrange a not too serious tournament, the number of games will depend on your desire and the players’ abilities.

How much is the game of chess
As mentioned earlier, the number of parties can be unlimited, while in time the party has limits. It is about controlling the time of each move. The need for time control appeared at a time when chess tournaments began to gather spectators and “fans”.

Time limits are different: for a game, for a single move, for a certain number of moves, with the addition of time. For amateur games, an hourglass is used – the faster the player makes a move, the less time for his opponent to think.

There are cases when chess tournaments and just matches were delayed for several days due to the absence of any limit.

Party time depends on its type (more precisely, the format). At this point we dwell in more detail.

The classic party. The most common version of the game, which was introduced at the end of the 19th century (hence the name). Players are given two hours to complete the first 40 moves, then an hour for the next 20 moves and 30 minutes before the end of the game.
Blitz or fast chess. This format will dispel the stereotype that chess is a boring and boring game. Each chess player is given 5 minutes for the whole game. In some games, players can get even 3 or 1 minute (quite extreme!). To become a blitz player (player of blitz games), it takes a lot of training and qualities such as teamwork, the ability to make decisions quickly and, of course, speed.
Rapid – you can say a lite version of blitz. Chess players are given 15-20 minutes per game. In general, a batch of rapid format can last from 10 to 60 minutes.

In a time-controlled game, a situation such as time pressure often arises – the player has to make a few more moves, and there is almost no time left. In some cases, time may be added; therefore, the batch duration will increase.

A time limit is also common. In general terms – with a fixed and predetermined amount of time, a certain number of seconds or minutes is added to each move according to different schemes (Fisher, Bronstein, with a delay without accumulation).

So, as you can see, it’s very difficult to establish a solid time frame for a chess game. It all depends on the course of the game: how complex the combinations are, how much time the players spend thinking about the next move. All this makes chess an even more interesting and exciting game.

The number of possible chess games
We said that the number of games in chess is not regulated, but it is not infinite. This was proved by the famous American mathematician Claude Shannon back in 1950.

Shannon got this number from mathematical calculations. The mathematician found that for each move the player has 30 different options. P