Startpos
The initial position of a standard game of chess.
Completed perft [0, …, 12]
View resultsThe Grand Chess Tree
A community-computed catalogue of perft (Performance Test) results for selected chess positions — reporting depth-by-depth move counts, computation timelines, and distinct-position counts.
Background
Perft (Performance Test) measures how many possible move sequences exist up to a given depth from a starting position. Chess is a branching game: each move creates new possibilities. At depth 1, White has 20 moves. At depth 2, there are 400 reachable positions. By depth 3 the count is 8,902; then 187K, 4.8M, 3.2B. By depth 12 it exceeds sixty quadrillion.
Perft is a standard correctness test for chess engines — a move-generation bug will almost always produce a divergent count. The history of high-depth perft computation goes back to the 1980s and has advanced through both algorithmic refinement and growth in available compute.
Perft counts move sequences, not distinct board states: multiple sequences may transpose to the same position, and perft counts them separately. The results pages further break down counts by move type — captures, en passants, castles, promotions, checks, and mates — and report the number of distinct positions reached at each depth as a separate measure.
Further reading: Perft on the Chess Programming Wiki.
Studied positions
Three positions are catalogued, each selected for historical or structural significance. Each entry links to a full results page with depth-by-depth move counts, computation timelines, and the contributors who performed the work.
Kiwipete
A perft position introduced by Peter McKenzie, notable for its large branching factor and the variety of tactical motifs it exercises.
Completed perft [0, …, 10]
View resultsSJE's Symmetric Alternative
In 2013, Steven J. Edwards proposed this position, arguing that it offers a wider distribution of move types than the start position while preserving color symmetry.
Completed perft [0, …, 9]
View resultsParticipation
The Grand Chess Tree is maintained by Tim Jones. The catalogue depends on volunteered compute. Coordination, protocol discussion, and result verification take place on the project Discord. The worker client and server protocol are open source (repository, documentation).