Chess: The case for the greatest game

Sep 24 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE CHALLENGE was thrown out by the late-night radio host: “Ring and tell us what you believe is the greatest board game ever”.

Now, chess players will tell you that to reveal a passion for the game is to lay yourself open to the suspicion that you must be some kind of nerd; to reveal that you call in to late-night radio shows carries a similar risk.

However, I felt it only right that I should square up to this challenge of stating the case for the game played on the 64-square board and I joined the phone debate.

One of the studio guests, a professor of mathematics, was adamant Scrabble laid emphatic claim to the title of best board game ever, and dismissed chess on the grounds that anyone could learn the best opening 10 moves or so and thus have a winning advantage over anyone who did not possess such knowledge.

Regular readers may recall that I began playing the game with a similar misconception, so I was armed and ready for the professor: how many positions were possible, did he think, after just three moves for both players?

He reasoned it must be hundreds, maybe even thousands. I told him it was three million and the show’s host all but whistled in surprise.

When I threw in the additional fact that, setting up a new position once every minute, it would take more than forty thousand years to exhaust all possible positions the host was won over and the professor’s dismissal of chess crunched by such overwhelming numbers.

So, as I prepare to play my first match of a new season, I feel I already have one victory under my belt. It’s just a pity I have reminded myself of how many ways are lurking on the board just waiting to trip me up.