As far as I know, its 64!(64 factorial).. thats multiplying numbers from 1 to 64.. that many no. of ways because you have 64 squares and each square can give rise to 64*63 possible moves at any given time... Thats how the mathematics goes!

lets see, theres slowly, and then theres slowly, and oh, did I mention slowly .........

This question can be treated in different ways. You can play passively - waiting for your opponent to commit themselves and you defend. You can play aggresively - eg. advancing your pawns towards opponents defences around his king - all out attack... Chess is a brilliant game because there is so much strategy and tactics involved. I like to sacrifice my Kings Bishops pawn to free up that column so I can attack my opponent aggresively if he castles kings side. Some people like to keep game complicated - normally players that do not run in to time trouble. If you are a player that often gets inn to time trouble then it might be a good idea to try and swap off pieces to simplify the end game. If I am playing someone I expect to beat - and its a proper match then I will play cautiously as I expect that I will make less mistakes than them in the end. When I am playing someone considerably better than myself - then I throw caution to the wind and take much bigger risks. Greater sacrifices - because I know if I play safe - I am even more unlikely to win. I have already mentioned time. If your opponent often ends up in time trouble then it can be a good idea to play your moves fast. However this can speed them up to - so it works with some people and not with others. As for number of moves - taken from someone elses answer to an earlier question. (Better than my answer). Chess is infinite: There are 400 different positions after each player makes one move apiece. There are 72,084 positions after two moves apiece. There are 9+ million positions after three moves apiece. There are 288+ billion different possible positions after four moves apiece. There are more 40-move games on Level-1 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! --Chesmayne" Source and further information: http://www.chess-poster.com/.../did_you_know.htm