How Many Games of Chess?

[kkirksey@world.std.com (Ken B Kirksey)]

This is tangentially related to crypto.  I've been reading A.K. Dewdney's
_The New Turning Omnibus_ recently to refresh my memory of all that stuff
I learned in undergrad that I'm going to see again on the Comp Sci GRE
shortly. :-)  Anyway, I was glancing through the chapters on complexity,
computabilty, and minimax trees, and I got to wondering something:  how
many possible games of chess are there?  I know that it has to be a finite
number, but I'm not sure how to go about finding this number.  Any
pointers would be appreciated.

Ken

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Ken Kirksey            kkirksey@world.std.com            Mac Guru & Developer
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When the going gets tough, the tough hide under the table.
                                                           -Edmund Blackadder