In theory, programming a computer to play chess is easy: if you let a chess program’s search algorithms run for an indefinite amount of time, then all positions can be solved by brute force. “There is a well-understood algorithm to solve chess,” Campbell told me. “I could probably write the program in half a day that could solve the game if you just let it run long enough.” In practice, however, “it takes the lifetime of the universe to do that,” he lamented.
