1. A method for predicting a manufacturing yield of a chip, comprising: using at least one computer for: receiving a chip layout; identifying hotspots within the chip layout, wherein a hotspot is a location within the chip layout wherein a yield-indicative variable value falls in a low manufacturable range; obtaining yield scores for the hotspots, wherein a yield score indicates a failure probability for a corresponding hotspot; and predicting the manufacturing yield for the chip based on the hotspots and the yield scores for the hotspots by: applying a transformation T to each of the yield scores to obtain transformed yield scores which are independent of each other, wherein the transformation T decouples spatial correlations between the yield scores; and computing the manufacturing yield for the chip by multiplying individual transformed yield scores.