uhm...who knows...

According to an article on the BBC website there are a billion billion billion billion billion possible positions. Article (about draughts/checkers) is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6907018.stm

1) "The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 10^43 and 10^50, with a game-tree complexity of approximately 10^123. The game-tree complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon as 10^120, a number known as the Shannon number. Typically an average position has thirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the case of checkmate or stalemate) or as many as 218." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess 2) "Chess is infinite: There are 400 different positions after each player makes one move apiece. There are 72,084 positions after two moves apiece. There are 9+ million positions after three moves apiece. There are 288+ billion different possible positions after four moves apiece. There are more 40-move games on Level-1 than the number of electrons in our universe. There are more game-trees of Chess than the number of galaxies (100+ billion), and more openings, defences, gambits, etc. than the number of quarks in our universe! --Chesmayne" Source and further information: http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm 3) Other interesting sources: How many moves possible in chess: http://forums.appleinsider.com/archive/index.php/t-12917.html Chess Moves: http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-47078.html Maximum possible chess moves: http://www.chessatwork.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=73646&page=2