Game Lengths

A stored game's length sets how far a match with it can run, since no run outlasts the shorter of the two games. A move here counts a move of White's and Black's reply as one, so a game of 81 plies plays 41 moves, and half of the stored games end by move 40, each count read from the index by mise run docs:render.

Across the Decades

Each decade's games run to a length of their own, and the games of the 1900s ended by move 38 at the median, those of the 1960s by move 37, and those of the 2020s by move 43. Below, each decade rises as a ridge where its games most often end, the earliest decades sharing the top ridge, and each ridge is drawn to its own height with its median ruled through it. The table beneath counts every decade, each count read from the index by mise run docs:render.

43

The games of the 2020s run longest, half of them ending by move 43, against move 37 for the games of the 1960s.

Decade

2020s

Median move

43

Middle half

33 to 56

Ended by the move

44% by move 40

The table beneath

Decade	Games	Median Move	Middle Half
1740s	1	40	40 to 40
1780s	2	44	44 to 47
1790s	3	40	40 to 40
1820s	1	30	30 to 30
1830s	121	36	27 to 48
1840s	248	35	27 to 45
1850s	556	33	25 to 44
1860s	614	34	25 to 43
1870s	577	37	28 to 48
1880s	1,095	42	32 to 55
1890s	1,659	42	32 to 53
1900s	2,965	38	30 to 50
1910s	1,890	38	29 to 49
1920s	4,109	38	30 to 49
1930s	4,304	39	31 to 50
1940s	4,288	41	31 to 51
1950s	9,938	39	29 to 47
1960s	14,779	37	27 to 45
1970s	18,661	37	26 to 46
1980s	31,510	38	26 to 47
1990s	62,060	38	28 to 49
2000s	70,706	39	29 to 51
2010s	89,953	41	32 to 54
2020s	115,002	43	33 to 56

By Result

A drawn game ends by move 37 at the median, and a game White wins by move 41. Below, three bands split the games ending at each move among White's wins, draws, and Black's wins, over a count of the games ending there, and a move picked in either chart on this page is marked in both. The table beneath counts each result over spans of moves, each count read from the index by mise run docs:render.

67%

Of the stored games that end by move 25, 67% are drawn, against 39% of those that run past move 60.

Show one

Move

40

Ending here

14,280

White won

40% 5,671

Drawn

27% 3,833

Black won

33% 4,776

The table beneath

Moves	White Won	Drawn	Black Won
0 to 10	371	3,398	259
11 to 20	3,597	24,089	2,276
21 to 30	25,489	31,718	16,576
31 to 40	46,951	32,225	34,414
41 to 50	38,467	29,683	27,802
51 to 60	22,491	18,650	17,681
61 to 70	11,488	11,072	8,840
71 to 80	4,997	5,983	4,022
81 and over	3,611	6,163	2,933