Meanwhile, for the game of Go, as played on a standard 19x19 board, we have:

The maximum number of possible next moves is 361, which happens only in the initial empty position.

The 361 hardest-to-reach positions (assuming logical rules like [2]) are all the positions with 360 white stones and 1 empty point. these take 2*361 = 722 ply to reach, with black passing all their turns.

And these answers were found without checking all 208168199381979984699478633344862770286522453884530548425639456820927419612738015378525648451698519643907259916015628128546089888314427129715319317557736620397247064840935 legal positions :-) [1]

[1] https://tromp.github.io/go/legal.html

[2] https://tromp.github.io/go.html

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mtremsal 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Then white plays 1 stone, capturing all the black stones at once, essentially resetting the game with a 360 points lead.

(black goes first, white has Komi, so really a 260+komi points lead)

	▲	tromp 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		White cannot play on the last empty point as this would be suicide, which is prevented by the (assumed) superko rule forbidding repetition of the empty position.

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GabrielBen 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

A game of Go can be legally infinite due to recaptures. (player passes 360 times, then eats the entire board and it starts over).

It's also a natural infinite game due to Kos which can be the best move to play. This requires a set of extra rules to prevent. (Ko, superKo, triple kos, etc)

	▲	tromp 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I assume superko as is standard in several rulesets to prevent infinite play.