As a chess programmer from the 1970's, I definitely have an opinion on this. What I wrote up about 10 years ago, still is basically true today:
"Unfinished Work and Challenges to Chess Programmers"
Back then, I thought we could solve Chess conventionally, if done properly.
Checkers was solved recently (Yay, University of Alberta, Canada!!!) but that was effectively done Brute Force. To do chess conventionally, you'll have to be smarter.
Unless, of course, Quantum Computing becomes a reality. If so, chess will be solved as easily as Tic-Tac-Toe.
In the early 1970's in Scientific American, there was a short parody that caught my attention. It was an announcement that the game of chess was solved by a Russian chess computer. It had determined that there is one perfect move for white that would ensure a win with perfect play by both sides, and that move is: 1. a4!
