I played every possible game of tic-tac-toe myself
in the third grade with a pencil and paper, without a computer.
OK, I exaggerated ever-so-slightly to make a point.
I certainly had completely solved the game so that I could never lose.
Computers have not played every game of chess possible.
Source(s):
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 x10¹² ways to play the first ten moves of a game of chess.
http://EzineArticles.com/?Secret-of-Chess&id=1717732
The Shannon number, 10 to the 120 power (10¹²º), 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 × 10 to the 79 power and 10 to the 81 power.
http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_number
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 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
The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.
The first chessboard with alternating light & dark squares appeared in Europe in 1090.
The record of moves without capture is of 100 moves during the Match between Thorton and M. Walker in 1992.
http://www.Chess-Poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm