 Recent scientific advances have not significantly changed that assessment . The game of checkers was solved in 2007 , but it has roughly the square root of the number of positions in chess . Jonathan <unk> , the scientist who led the effort , said a breakthrough such as quantum computing would be needed before solving chess could even be attempted , but he does not rule out the possibility , saying that the one thing he learned from his 16 @-@ year effort of solving checkers " is to never <unk> the advances in technology " . 
