Why is chess easy to learn but hard to master?

Unlike playing cards, chess seems pretty easy to learn. There is only one game and a few simple rules that one needs to remember. Hence everybody can learn how to play chess but very few people could play chess like Anatoly Karpov.





Why such seemingly simple game requires a pretty smart person to master?|||Consider the possibilities. How many possible games of chess are there?


鈥?鈥?鈥?It's up there with the number of atoms in the observable universe.


鈥?鈥?鈥?Counting all legal moves it is more than particles in the universe.





White has 20 first moves available to them (16 pawn moves; 4 knight moves).


There are 400 different positions possible after each player makes one move apiece.


There are 72,084 positions possible after two moves apiece.


There are 9+ million positions possible after three moves apiece.


There are 288+ billion different possible positions possible after four moves apiece.


http://www.AnswerBag.com/q_view/439478





There are more 40-move games possible 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!


http://www.Chess-Poster.com/english/note鈥?/a>





There are 318,979,564,000 possible ways to play the first four moves of chess.


In addition, America's Foundation for Chess found that there are


169,518,829,100,544,000 x10鹿虏 ways to play the first ten moves of a game of chess.


http://EzineArticles.com/?Secret-of-Ches鈥?/a>





The Shannon number, 10 to the 120 power (10鹿虏潞), is an estimated lower bound on the game-tree complexity of chess.


As a comparison, the number of atoms in the observable Universe, to which it is often compared, is estimated to be between 4 脳 10 to the 79 power and 10 to the 81 power.


http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_num鈥?/a>|||Anyone can learn to play Chess you don't have to be exceptionally gifted as Tarrasch pointed out in his book there's some truth in that up to a point. To become a pro is a whole other matter a player needs to have the tools and the nerves to play under extreme stress and pressure under fire either they've got it in them or they just don't and aren't going to make it in the game.|||because it's deals not only with time, but patience and strategy.





time- you have an actual time limit at which one person must make a move.





Patience- one must have patience in order to play this game





Strategy- One must look carefully and make the correct moves, one false move and your fk'd.





some people lack one of these some lack them all.





if your one of those guys.. STICK TO MUTHA FKING CHEECKA's... %26gt;:D|||You have to plan ahead. Before the first move you have to know what moves your opponent will make and know what moves to make to counteract him/her. I don't plan ahead though, I move to where I think I should based on where my opponent just moved, and I do pretty good.|||Read and re-read what Denise wrote!!





Not everyone can learn Chess -- few people can be true Masters. It takes years to perfect, if at all.





I taught my son checkers and beat him. I never beat him again. He moved on to Chess and joined the Chess Club.|||It's one of chess' paradoxes (easy to learn but HARD to master). Chess is an extremely complex game. As one of the greatest chess players Garry Kasparov said "Chess is mental torture"|||its a thinking game


its all about strategy|||You have to think before you move, and know what your opponent will do.|||Because it is so. It can be played only by the talent.