Massacre Proof Games

A game of chess is called a "massacre" if almost every move is a capture. When only the final diagram and the number of moves are given, deducing the game is a chess problem called a "massacre proof game".

Let x be the number of non-captures. The case x=2 is uninteresting because at most 4 halfmoves can be played. The table below contains information about the cases x=3,4,5. The number of pieces left on the board is of course simply 32+x-ply.

Toward the end of the table you will find some links to the corresponding chess problems. The fields inside each list of problems are:

• solutions: The number of solutions to the problem.
• w/o DR: The number of solutions without "Dead Reckoning" (= Article 1.3 of the Laws of Chess, repeated in 5.2b and 9.7). This gives the status of the problem prior to July 1, 1997, when the article was introduced. See this Dead Reckoning Tutorial to learn about the amazing effect of A1.3 on chess retrograde analysis.
• (w+b): The number of white pieces and black pieces.
• diagram: The location of each piece, white pieces first.
• problem ID: A link to the problem on the Chess Problem Database Server when it's there.

Plot of the table entries

To show the similarities, I'm scaling the x=3,4 graphs to the level of the x=5 graph by using some fudge factors.

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