How many possible openings are there in the game of chess, if we define an that opening consists of each player making their first 3 moves?

(With one move there are 400 possible openings)

(In reply to re: confused by levik)

i'd say the algorithm is pretty simple

for each white piece
  for each legal move
    for each black piece
      for each legal move
        ....
        add 1

thats ignoring all the technical details
ofcourse..

Posted by Cheradenine on 2002-10-28 08:33:24