Can there be a perfect chess algorithm?

Current chess algorithms go about 1 or maybe 2 levels down a tree of possible paths depending on the player's move's and the opponent's moves. Let's say that we have the computing power to develop an algorithm that predicts all possible movements of the opponent in a chess game. An algorithm that has all the possible paths that opponent can take at any given moment depending on the players moves. Can there ever be a perfect chess algorithm that will never lose? Or maybe an algorithm that will always win?
I mean in theory someone who can predict all the possible moves must be able to find a way to defeat each and every one of them or simply choose a different path if a certain one will effeminately lead him to defeat.....

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What my question really is. Let's say we have the computing power for a perfect algorithm that can play optimally. What happens when the opponent plays with the same optimal algorithm? That also will apply in all 2 player games with finite number (very large or not) of moves. Can there ever be an optimal algorithm that always wins?

Personal definition: An optimal algorithm is a perfect algorithm that always wins... (not one that never loses, but one that always wins

First of all, I believe that chess algorithms look more than 2 plies down, although they don't consider all different possibilities; pruning the search tree is very important to avoid the combinatorial explosion in the number of possible moves.

For a game like chess, there are three possibilities as to the identity of the winner: either player 1 has a winning strategy, or player 2 has a winning strategy, or both players draw under optimal play. It is not known which is the case for the game of chess. However, since chess is a finite game, there is a computer algorithm, consisting of a very large table, which plays chess optimally.

Of course, such an algorithm wouldn't be practical. But for some simpler games, the "value" of the game (which player wins, if any) has been determined, and an optimal algorithm has been devised. Such a game is known as a solved game.

The mathematical subject that deals with (what are known as) combinatorial games is combinatorial game theory. Mathematicians have developed a recursive method to determine the value of a game given the graph of the game, which includes all the allowed positions and moves. You should be able to find a description of this algorithm in the Wikipedia entry or any lecture notes on the subject.

StackExchange Computer Science Q#7313, answer score: 23