A 4-player chess installation with map of the Background Cosmic Microwave Radiation
The 4 positions of chess are: there; here; before; after.
Laser cutted and engraved MDF and coton paper.


Claude Shannon, often referred to as the "father of information theory," made significant contributions to various fields, including mathematics and computer science. One of his notable works was in the realm of chess, where he devised a method to estimate the number of possible moves in a game. 10^120 - the Sannon’s number, the astronomical figure highlights the immense complexity of chess, as it far exceeds the number of atoms in the observable universe.
In 1950, Shannon was working at Bell Labs, and he was intrigued by the complexity of chess. He wanted to find a way to quantify the game's complexity by determining the number of possible legal positions and moves. His goal was to establish a baseline for the game's computational complexity and understand the limits of chess-playing algorithms. While the Shannon Number is a theoretical concept and not an exact calculation, it illustrates the impracticality of brute-force methods for solving chess. It served as a foundation for later developments in computer chess, particularly in the creation of sophisticated algorithms and chess-playing programs.
The 4-player version of chess, often called "Four-Handed Chess" or "Double-Battle Chess," is a variant of the traditional chess game designed to accommodate four players. The concept is to have each player positioned on one side of a square board, with the pieces and rules adjusted to allow for dynamic interactions between all four participants.The 4-player chess variant adds an extra layer of complexity, strategy, and diplomacy compared to the traditional two-player version. Players need to balance their actions between offense and defense, considering the dynamics of the entire board and the potential for shifting alliances. The game often requires a higher level of communication and negotiation among players.
The work translates 4 chess positions into elementary spacetime prepositions: there, here, before and after. Considering there are double more figures on the board, which is also being extended, compared to traditional 2-player chess, the version exponentially exceeds the Sannon’s number, therefore a number of atoms in the observable Universe. Each time players are involved in such a game of chess, they are creating an unique closed system, an universe of its own, playing against or together with other elementary spacetime prepositions.