On the intelligence of chessplayers

Instead of elaborating on whether (master-level)chessplayers are inherently intelligent in the psychological sense, it seems more rational to suppose that they are intelligent as such and compare them to other categories of gameplayers, so that we realise in the process whether their intelligence is considerably transferable to domains that mainstream society values highly.

I'll speak for both types of Football, the one here in the states and the one on the other side of the planet.

In the United States, there are actually quite a few football players with University degrees up to a Master's. Chess players thereby may be considered inherently smart, which may or may not truly be the case, where many sports players appear to be foolish or idiotic but may indeed be quite intelligent.

Anyway, I assume every single person is a complete idiot until proven otherwise.

quote of the day. 

Actually i thought football to be very cerebral in every context, let aside brain injuries and verbal thinking!!

I dont quite understand what intelligent in a  psychological sense means.

but to me chess masters are smart, because they have all the traits of a smart person.

They are better learners, have good memories, a good subconcious mind. They also have determination and will, they use their power to master one thing instead of doing a trillion little things and never be good in anything. The way chess master recognize patterns i find extremly useful.

I know many say humans make wrong conclusions because we want to see patterns. But i believe still recognizing patterns is so important in so many endeavours and its for a true sign of intelligence.....

look at the stock market, business endeavours how beneficial is pattern recognition in every thing???

Ofc its transformable, if you read the wall street journal, the economist and the bloomberg journal. Go out see what people are doing. You can become very rich and successfull.. Why pattern recognition, its the key to monetary success in my opinion. Its the same pattern recognition you need to become a great chess player...

to me a guy with great pattern recognition will be way more successful than any average guy with any degree.

Also chessmasters are probably way smarter than any psychologists for sure.

even the greatest guys in history are pattern recognizer. just look at apple, its not inspiration,its pattern recognition he took so many ideas from so many different things. All business people, why is it that so many people who traveled around the world become so successful?

To me the key to everything is pattern recognition. One smart person once said, the life is a ever repeating story just with different names.

The key to this life is absolutly pattern recognition in my opinion.

Anyway, I assume every single person is a complete idiot until proven otherwise.

This will get you into a lot of trouble in your life.  Assume everyone is your equal until proven otherwise.

I mean, its more cultural than inherent. The culuture is that "intelligent" people play chess so "intelligent" people tend to play chess therefore chess players tend to be "intelligent". Whether their intelligence is transferable relies soley upon the person. Not all chess players are intelligent in the same regard similar to how not all chess players have the same style of play. Being a chess player is such a small part of who a person really is that I don't think you can define them by it. 

(1) : correction : if you see the quotes of chess players and footballers that history remembered, you will see the difference... But it's more the audience than the players.

(2) : how that ? It's indifferently aimed to everyone. And btw, it's rather efficient.

Research has shown that Chess players are of normal intelligence but this grows as they play ie. chess develops one's intelligence.

Also proven is that chess players develop a high level of "chess intelligence" - not transferable to other walks of life

There is noboby in the world dumber than people who play chess.

(Except for people who do not.)

Intelligence comes in many different varieties, it is a very broad term. Maybe chess masters need more of a certain skill set rather than raw  "intelligence". I am just saying, I know as much or as little as anybody on this subject.

Not quite true.  I wrestled in high school and chess helped keep my general tactical senses keen.  If there's an exploitable weakness you know to hone in on it.  A lot of jump rope and agility drills (that weren't even held at practice but on my own) helped transfer this tactical vision into something real and exploitable. 

Jump rope, tactical vision, and something exploitable??

You really need to play more chess, and (perhaps) post a bit less, @Scorp.

Why so few games played?  Too busy striking a Karate pose in the mirror?

Quite a range...from the drones, and I was following one who took ten plus years to break master...to those who just like to play.

The benefits of learning chess for children have been greatly exposed by chess schools. 

Quite right Scorpionpackattack. I used the wrong choice of words there. The lifeskills and other general skill sets that chess brings about is probably immeasurable and of course transferrable to many walks of life.

The research was vocational transferable.

I have this strange notion that we're not discussing social intelligence..?

The smartest person I've ever met (and whom I also pride myself in being best friends with) is a chess player and an elite athlete.

Chess has worked wonders for me in terms of study activity and results. Simply put, I've become more precise and effective (and abstract) in terms of thought proces which in turn has produced a nice string of A's. I attribute this to playing and studying chess.
I don't think it means I've become more intelligent, rather I think it means I've become more focused.

Are you saying there is a contradiction between those assumptions?