I don't know if it is as common now that computers can beat all of us, but for the longest time there was a tendency to regard chess as some sort of IQ test, utterly ignoring the element of knowledge and determination required to play well. As a great swimmer would appear to be a worse athlete than a mediocre baseball player, if the only test was skill at baseball.
While most good chess players I know are in fact fairly to very intelligent, I have an acquaintence, not easily distinguishable from an intelligent goat, who can probably beat all present and future Nobel winners handily(1) (and I beat pretty much all the time, though I'm quite sure I'm not getting shortlisted for the Nobel any time soon). But then he really wanted to be a decent player, and, all credit to him, studied hard, played a lot, and hung around with good players - you can learn a lot from their causal conversation.
I actually met someone a few years ago who still held to this view of chess and intelligence. As a quite strong player himself he found it a congenial attitude. It was like meeting an extinct creature, say a Dodo, but not as charming.
(1) He might have been in trouble if they gave Nobels for music. Prokofiev and David Oistrach would have beaten him, not to mention Grandmaster and pianist Mark Taimanov.
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james_davis_nicoll) wrote2013-04-12 10:38 am
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(Anonymous) 2013-04-12 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)While most good chess players I know are in fact fairly to very intelligent, I have an acquaintence, not easily distinguishable from an intelligent goat, who can probably beat all present and future Nobel winners handily(1) (and I beat pretty much all the time, though I'm quite sure I'm not getting shortlisted for the Nobel any time soon). But then he really wanted to be a decent player, and, all credit to him, studied hard, played a lot, and hung around with good players - you can learn a lot from their causal conversation.
I actually met someone a few years ago who still held to this view of chess and intelligence. As a quite strong player himself he found it a congenial attitude. It was like meeting an extinct creature, say a Dodo, but not as charming.
(1) He might have been in trouble if they gave Nobels for music. Prokofiev and David Oistrach would have beaten him, not to mention Grandmaster and pianist Mark Taimanov.
William Hyde