Wikipedia says: In game theory, perfect play is the behaviour or strategy of a player that leads to the best possible outcome for that player regardless of the response by the opponent. Perfect play for a game is known when the game is solved.
That last sentence means that perfect play is unknown for unsolved games like chess, so trying to solve chess by perfect play is not possible. Still, that doesn't prevent some players, obsessed with the idea of perfect play, from spending oceans of time trying to solve at least the position they have in front of them. That's futile, because almost all positions are insolvable. We can solve mate puzzles, and endings with seven pieces or less, but that's about it.
Even ancient seafarers used navigational charts to arrive safely at their destination. In chess, we have opening manuals serving the same purpose. While navigation now can be considered solved, nearly all possible chess positions remain in uncharted territory as we saw in the previous article.
Before navigation was solved, some daring seafarers like Leif Eriksson or Christofer Columbus ventured off the map, even a the risk of perishing in unknown waters, and found America. Many others, unmentioned in the history books, went under trying.
It's tempting to view the main line in the manual as perfect play, but it's really just a well tested line with a good performance score. Any early deviation can lead to previously unknown positions, and some of them can actually be better than the main line (although most of the are rubbish).
Sometimes we see a TN mark after a move. A Theoretical Novelty is a move from a standard book position that is previously unknown to (or discarded by) established theory, a Columbus Move if you like. If the new move proves successful, it will replace the old move as the main line, if not, it will perish at sea.
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