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The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge

Posted By: Nick Kravitz
Date: Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 9:01 p.m.

In Response To: The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge (AdamStocks)

When the game starts, White has 20 legal moves to choose from (16 pawn moves and 4 knight moves). This number rapidly increases toward the middle-game. After the most common opening (e4) white now has 30 legal moves on move 2 (15 pawn, 5 knight, 5 bishop, 5 queen). After reaching the end-game (in particular, after the queens are removed from the board) the number of possible legal moves rapidly decreases again.

http://www.mark-weeks.com/aboutcom/aa02j19.htm http://www.cis.uab.edu/hyatt/search.html

Claude Shannon approximated the average number of legal moves at 30, but this includes all 3 phases of the game and thus is lower than just the middle-game number.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_number

Messages In This Thread

• The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
  Bill Riles -- Tuesday, 7 May 2013, at 5:39 p.m.
  • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
    Bill Riles -- Tuesday, 7 May 2013, at 6:54 p.m.
    • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
      Jake Jacobs -- Wednesday, 8 May 2013, at 5:00 a.m.
      • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
        Leonardo Jerkovic -- Wednesday, 8 May 2013, at 6:25 a.m.
    • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
      lenny -- Wednesday, 8 May 2013, at 7:30 a.m.
  • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
    Joe Russell -- Wednesday, 8 May 2013, at 6:15 a.m.
  • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
    Christian Munk-Christensen -- Wednesday, 8 May 2013, at 10:51 a.m.
    • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
      Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 1:29 a.m.
      • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
        Phil Simborg -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 2:53 p.m.
        • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
          Bob Koca -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 4:52 p.m.
      • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
        ah_clem -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 5:07 p.m.
        • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
          Timothy Chow -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 6:05 p.m.
  • Great exposure for backgammon
    Gyl S -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 7:39 p.m.
    • Great exposure for backgammon
      Bill Riles -- Thursday, 9 May 2013, at 10:04 p.m.
      • Great exposure for backgammon
        Phil Simborg -- Friday, 10 May 2013, at 2:34 a.m.
        • Great exposure for backgammon
          Bob Koca -- Friday, 10 May 2013, at 4:14 a.m.
          • Great exposure for backgammon
            Wolf -- Tuesday, 4 June 2013, at 9:22 p.m.
        • Great exposure for backgammon
          Bill Finneran -- Friday, 10 May 2013, at 12:31 p.m.
        • Great exposure for backgammon
          6stones -- Friday, 10 May 2013, at 1:29 p.m.
        • Great exposure for backgammon
          capecodbob63 -- Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 9:15 p.m.
    • Great exposure for backgammon
      Art Grater -- Friday, 10 May 2013, at 12:47 a.m.
  • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
    Nick Kravitz -- Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 4:16 p.m.
    • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
      AdamStocks -- Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 8:14 p.m.
      • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
        AdamStocks -- Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 8:15 p.m.
      • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
        Nick Kravitz -- Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 9:01 p.m.
        • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
          AdamStocks -- Tuesday, 14 May 2013, at 10:12 p.m.
        • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
          Henrik Bukkjaer -- Wednesday, 15 May 2013, at 6:10 a.m.
          • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
            konstantin -- Wednesday, 15 May 2013, at 6:36 p.m.
            • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
              Henrik Bukkjaer -- Friday, 17 May 2013, at 2:46 p.m.
            • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
              Henrik Bukkjaer -- Friday, 17 May 2013, at 2:51 p.m.
              • Blindfold chess/backgammon
                Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 3:06 a.m.
                • Blindfold chess/backgammon
                  Jake Jacobs -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 3:49 a.m.
                  • Blindfold chess/backgammon
                    Timothy Chow -- Saturday, 18 May 2013, at 6:04 p.m.
    • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
      Art Grater -- Wednesday, 15 May 2013, at 1:50 a.m.
  • The Chaos of the Dice -- A Backgammon Hustler's Quest to Gain an Edge
    Douglas Zare -- Monday, 20 May 2013, at 5:44 a.m.