@coquette said
50 moves without a capture or a pawn advance can be claimed as a draw. Of course, a 21 day time out with a 21 day time bank and 36 days of vacation for each player can last longer than the age of the universe.
In the spirit of pedantry which this thread has engendred (pedant?
MOI? Never!), I don't think so.
The longest chess game ever actually played was 269 moves long, but that was between the mere amateurs Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović, both (in all probability: I can't find any other information on either of them) much better players than either of us, but still not a patch on the properly anal-retentive theoreticians.
The longest chess game
possible has been computed at just under 6000 moves. As I believe this was done before the 75-move rule was instated, let's say that neither player wants to stop but the arbiter does (if not, the game can go on until the electrons decay) and multiply this by 1½ to give 7500 moves.
The time bank is irrelevant. It's precisely as long as the time-out, so all it does, mathematically rather than psychologically, is add a single move. 21 is close enough to 20 to make no difference, given than 7500 is an upper bound already. Therefore, the total number of days a chess game on RHP can go on is 7500 × 20 = 150,000 days, *give or take*. That is just over 410 years, not even close to the end of Brexit, let alone the universe...
The question is practical, not rhetorical. Brings to mind some of John Cage's compositions, such as ORGAN2/ASLSP, which lasts 639 years, when played properly.
...and even only two-thirds as long as that boredom.
Frankly, I'd rather watch the chess game. Give me a proper operetta to sing in any day!