> (draw at optimal play on a 5x5 board, win for first player on smaller boards) Somewhat relatedly, I keep wondering how board size affects the game of chess i

> (draw at optimal play on a 5x5 board, win for first player on smaller boards) Somewhat relatedly, I keep wondering how board size affects the game of chess in particular. It seems that a 1x8 board definitely leads to a stalemate (because the pawns in front of the kings would block each other), but at some point adding new columns (with the relevant pieces) makes the game impossible to exhaustively search, and at least plausibly introduces the ability for one of the players (presumably white) to win with perfect play. That ability for a winning strategy to emerge just beyond our ability to compute is somehow tantalising.