 In 2004 , GM Larry Kaufman expressed a more <unk> view than Adams and Berliner , arguing that the initiative stemming from the first move can always be transformed into some sort of enduring advantage , albeit not necessarily a decisive one . Kaufman writes , " I don 't believe that White has a forced win in Chess . I do however believe that with either 1.e4 or 1.d4 , White should be able to obtain some sort of advantage that persists into the endgame . If chess were scored like boxing , with drawn games awarded by some point system to the player ( if any ) who came ' closer ' to winning , then I believe White would indeed have a forced win in theory . " 
