The Shannon number is an estimation of the game-tree complexity of Chess. It was first calculated by Claude Shannon, the father of information theory. According to him, on average, 40 moves are played in a chess game and each player chooses one move among 30 (but in fact, there may be as few as zero -in the case of checkmate or stalemate- or as many as 218). Therefore, (30×30)⁴⁰, i.e. 900⁴⁰ chess games are possible. This number is about 10¹¹⁸, or a billion billion googol, as the solution of the equation 900⁴⁰sup. = 10x is x = 40log₁₀⁹⁰⁰.

The game-tree complexity of chess is now evaluated at approximately 10¹²³ (the number of legal positions in the game of chess is estimated to be between 10⁴³ and 10⁵⁰). As a comparison, the number of atoms in the Universe, to which it is often compared, is estimated to be between 4×10⁷⁸ and 6×10⁷⁹.(ref Wikepedia.)

This page has been made specially to host an epic game of a high standard. The game was a Premier Section game played during the Fifth Staffordshire Chess congress of 1969 held at Northicote School, Bushbury, Wolverhampton during the Whitsuntide holiday.

Alf J Butcher was one of Wolverhampton's Chess Club's strongest ever players. In 1969 his strength was formidable but his grade unknown at this time. He played an awesome opponent in the Fifth Staffordshire Chess congress of 1969. The opponent was no other than then a young 14 year old but now late Tony Miles the first British Grandmaster. Miles' only loss was to Alf Butcher and Miles went on to win the tournament's Premier section jointly with D W Anderton and P C Griffiths.

It would be interesting to hear from any club members or ex members or anyone who believes there was a stronger Wolverhampton player than Alf Butcher.

D W Anderton edited the congress bulletin jointly with G Homer.

Games Selection!

PGN Source file for these games

Accreditations:

Thankyou to Keith Bate for loan of The Staffordshire Chess Congress Bulletins.

References:

D W Anderton & G Homer(ed).(1971). Seventh Staffordshire Chess Congress: Spring 1971. p73-4