>....In chess the first move can be only one of 18 ...as far as I can
>tell the number of possibilities never gets much higher than 18 and
>is often significantly lower...
That is scarcely the case. In an end game a centrally-positioned Queen may have as many as 27 possible moves without even considering any other pieces.
Shane Mage
"immortals mortals, mortals immortals, living their deaths, dying their lives"
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 62