Zipf's Law in the Popularity Distribution of Chess Openings

摘要: We perform a quantitative analysis of extensive chess databases and show that the frequencies opening moves are distributed according to power law with an exponent increases linearly game depth, whereas pooled distribution all weights follows Zipf's universal exponent. propose simple stochastic process is able capture observed playing statistics Zipf arises from self-similar nature tree chess. Thus, in case hierarchical fragmentation scaling truly independent particular generating mechanism. Our findings relevance general processes composite decisions.