you can be of mediocre intellect and succeed in chess with a lot of hard work, but can someone on the dim end make it to master? idk. its an interesting question.
for comparison, the average iq of mathematicians is in the 140's with 115 being on the very low end. if you define being 2200 as being good at chess, then i woudnt be surprised if the "low" end for chess masters is in the low 100's. not "smart" but not dim either.
Can you be a dumb person and still be good at chess?
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Aug 2, 2021
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#162
Aug 2, 2021
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#163
Certainly at the highest level raw cognitive ability must be a factor but with enough work, family support, and starting young enough most individuals can become titled if they take it seriously enough
I’m very smart and still mediocre at chess
Aug 2, 2021
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#165
An actual "dumb" person, in the context of this thread, would likely struggle to operate a phone/computer.
And making a forum post, and communicating their concerns, would likely be beyond their intellectual ability.
Going off that line of thinking, then, if you're asking, "Am I too dumb to be good at chess?", I'd have to say, no, you're clearly not. 
Being good at chess comes, mostly, from experience and training.
Many players, who want to be good, tend to train in a casual, unstructured way (trial and error, usually), which is generally less successful than the approach that titled players tend to use (which is usually more rigorous, and academic).
So it's not so much a matter of intellect, but more a matter of how you train.
Aug 2, 2021
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#166
I've known several masters who really had a hard time with practical logic. One classic example was one night after a long blitz session, several masters and myself went to a restaurant. The big wooden door was closed, but the sign said they were open. Two masters spent ~30 seconds pushing the door to try to get it to open! (Almost all restaurants in the US have doors that open outwards as part of the fire code.) Neither master could figure out the door. I was bent over laughing as a 13xx player finally opened the door for them!
Aug 2, 2021
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#167
Pretty sure magnus is kinda slow. He’s obviously extremely good at chess and memorizing things but everyday life is not normal for him. Don’t know what his IQ is…but watch one of his interviews and it’s clear he is struggling to maintain a sense of reality
Aug 3, 2021
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#168
Magnus isn't slow, but he does have problems in certain social settings. He was clearly extremely gifted as a child, as seen in the documentary, "Magnus". It's sad tho that he was bullied in school until he became a celebrity.
Aug 3, 2021
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#169
or too "naive", The amazing story of GM Gilles Andruet, was Great in Mathematics and start to be very rich in playing casino ( by memorisation of cards , etc 5 head) and have bad friends ....
they have caught his murderer, so dumb with the photo and the lying woman living in palace pretending not knowing...
Aug 3, 2021
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#171
GorgeousMale wrote:
It's not a matter of intelligence as of all the greatest minds in history literally not one who is remembered even cared one iota about chess. Great chess players all have one thing in common - some strange, insatiable desire to play chess and beat their opponent. Beat them at what? Not really anything but a meaningless ego pursuit but that seems to be something that they just never tire of. Of course, 99.99% out there simply could never relate and think this behavior is rather indicative of serious antisocial psychopathy but...they're determined to think they're involved in some noble endeavor, nonetheless.
if chess were more popular we would treat certain master games as paintings like the mona lisa, or rock star pure mathematicians.
unless you have some primitivist idea of useful, many of the things we greatly value for their beauty or profundity are otherwise useless or of questionable direct import. Imagine thinking that building a good bridge at a village is more worthy of respect than the poincare conjecture being solved or the mona lisa. I dont want to live in such a naive world.
No.