No, time is not everything. Memory is also important, for a brute force approach one has to memorise all the branchings and lines already read out.

Since this is impossible in the real physical universe, good judgement in pruning the game tree becomes another requirement. Without good judgement, even infinite time will not help.

No, time is not everything. Memory is also important, for a brute force approach one has to memorise all the branchings and lines already read out.

Note also that solving chess is a problem of finite size, albeit the size is really huge. So you can do it in some finite time using some finite amount of memory, at least in theory. Solving chess is probably impossible in the real physical universe, good judgement in pruning the game tree becomes another requirement. Without good judgement, even infinite time will not help.

For a game between human players, limits can be lifted in several ways, correspondence chess does not only allow rather long time limits but also allows the use of any resource available to the player, including access to a library of chess books (extending memory in some way, as you can lookup opening lines) and computers (with their faster "thinking" they increase the time effectively, and they also provide additional memory).