Journal
ChessCuriosity

More chess games than atoms

Meet the Shannon number.

A

ACCAT

19 Jul 2026

The number of possible chess games is astronomically large. The Shannon number estimates around 10120 — but even ignoring superscripts, it means a 1 followed by roughly 120 zeros.

That's far more than the estimated number of atoms in the observable universe (about 1080). Every game you play is almost certainly unique.

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