While, I'm fully aware that the number of chess moves exceeds the number of atoms in the universe greatly, and so solving it is a problem that falls in NP, I was wondering if certain variations of it can be solved.
I know that chess itself can't be solved.* But, is it possible to solve at least a few openings ? What I mean is, is it possible for computers to definitely say "For this variation of the Sicilian Defense, White is winning." or "For this variation of the Queen's Gambit, Black is winning." Are there special cases where it is possible to say exactly which side is winning after 7-8 moves? (* - Strictly speaking, it has not been proven that chess cannot be solved. It cannot be solved by a brute force search of the game-tree, because such a graph is too large. But not all algorithms have been excluded in their ability to solve chess).