Is there any positive relationship between IQ and chess?

Question

I want to know whether there are evidence that corroborate above statement. it can be from your experience or any other sources.


Is it true that top chess players in the world have high IQ? Is it true that one can improve IQ score and numerical skills (such as math) by playing chess?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The type of thinking skills associated with a high IQ include an ability to see the larger and smaller pictures, remember, imagine any number of scenarios that could result from the present, and generally skills associated with strategy.

Any time someone exercises his intellect it is likely he will improve his abilities. While it may be possible to improve certain types of intellectual skills, it is generally believed that improving one's overall IQ after a certain age is generally not something that occurs.

The best chess players cannot have low IQ's and probably do not have average IQ's. Exactly how high an IQ one must have in order to be a top chess player is something I don't know.

I also cannot name any sources to corroborate what I've said, although I spent several years studying up on intelligence, giftedness, and educational issues.

I was heard someone (on a television program, such as a PBS program or some news program) refer to a person who was very intelligent but not particularly understood by most people. The comment was made, "He was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers." This person had a chess-type/strategic approach to life; while the person making the remark associated with most people's simpler approach to life with the simpler game of checkers.

Just a couple of notable websites:

http://www.jlevitt.dircon.co.uk/iq.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/ches31.shtml

Answer 2

You probably need an above average IQ to be a top chess player, but there is probably a point in which your IQ doesn't matter any more in relation to chess skill.


If chess and IQ were directly related, someone like Garry Kasparov would have to have an astronomical IQ (around 180+)

There was speculation about this for awhile actually. A group of people went through a lot of trouble to get Kasparov tested. His IQ was 135...on a real IQ test, which is fairly high (high enough to qualify for mensa), but not astronomical.

Comparatively, before some of you jump on this and think you might be smarter than Kasparov, if you've taken a bad online IQ test like tickles, that doesn't prove anything. The average score on tickles IQ test is 120, so subtract 15-20 points from your score (unless you scored the ceiling, 140). A real IQ test is very difficult and 135 is a solid score.

My friend was tested professionally at an IQ of 97. He scored 127 on tickles test.

Answer 3

IQ in the normal sense has nothing to do with chess. You need to have good tactical skills, not smarts.

Answer 4

IQ is measured in many different spheres covering many different subjects. Therefore you would need to know in what areas the IQ was strong in.

Being strong in language is unlikely to help much whilst visiospatial skills would help.

Answer 5

maybe if it only means that you have just learned a new game and can keep on learning new ways to learn by you mistakes as you play and i think i read somewhere that the best players might have a better chance of also being insane in someway!

Answer 6

There are lots of people who would laugh at the possibility of altering their destinies. This is due to the fact that it believes that no one gets more that what is put in his fate.