Relationship between Chess rating and I.Q? - Chess Forums (2024)

Ear?....that's all that will be left. Great one uwinagain!

I don't think Gamma's ear would have a pencil behind it though! lol

It's not like we really think hyper-gamma gives a stuff about his pencil. Behave. Least he has a pencil?

He must have....eunichs have great chess ratings.

Yes but they often miss the point! lol

...which is lucky...'cos some people can't actually make a point.

I have read that Vishy Anand has an IQ of 97, but I could find any ready references now; so I do not know how far that is true. One does not need to be a genius to play well at chess; chess is one game usually starting from the same position over and over again, where you can use opening preparations and pattern memorizations to terrific advantage. It need not be that your chess skills display your IQ.However, in general, it is believed and research indicates that top grandmasters usually have very high IQs. A person with average IQ is expected to reach a maximum rating of about 2000 in chess. Strong grandmasters with a rating of around and over 2600 are expected to have an IQ of 160 plus. The strongest grandmasters of the day with their ratings hovering around 2800 are expected to have IQs around 180.

My IQ has sunk about 45-50 points but yet sometimes I cansolve chess problems that the very strongest chess engines cannotsolve.

Methinks there is a small correlation between IQ and chess? [can there be a small correlation?]

Don't kid yourself with these speculations. If I was in Top 10 or a Super GM I'd be willing to take a test and demonstrate my inhuman IQ (Feynam's documented IQ is just 123). They're good at chess, not at raven matrices.

Dear NW, did you bother to read any literature about the IQ's of top GM's?

I'm assuming you're one of those guys who are pretty weak at chess but feel that because you're not too bad at something else requiring thought [math] that there must therefore be little correlation between chess & IQ?

Perhaps we should use your reasoning about great thinkers in any discipline...why should excellence in chess be any different? Are you familiar with the concepts involved in endgame technique or strategy in closed positions...not to mention the ability to accurately calculate complex variations with a high degree of accuracy?

I've completed my degree in Engineering many years ago...but I hit a brick wall with my chess years ago...it was just much more difficult than getting a degree with no security. Maybe I could get to 2200 if I had really studied intensively, but instead I'm only 2000.

I think you under-rate master level players, and particularly the world greats!!

Can you provide references about the actual IQs of Super GMs and not the hogwash alleged ones? Here you have a link to PubMed: http://goo.gl/46MEVU (but use the source that best suits you).

Simply put, ELO is chess' IQ. I'm not aware of the fact that an outstanding IQ is necessary to become a top player. Of course I'm open to new ideas. Being smart? Yes, that really helps but we're talking about IQ here.

[COMMENT DELETED]

This is bs. I have an iq of 140 yet I suck at chess; I have a rating barely over 1200. I don't take the game too seriously and don't play very often but I have a decent understanding of the rules and strategies. I don't think one's success in the game is dependent on IQ, however it may play a small role.

http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/champion-chess-players-smart-yes-question-65735

I find it amusing that self proclaimed brainiacs like NW & c7 [no doubt pulled their IQ result from a corn flakes packet] etc find it hard to believe that excellence in ANY intellectual endeavour requires high IQ...& that to be among the best in the world would require an outstanding IQ. [Just google world champion + iq & let us know if you can find anything.]

I know chess players from 1200 to 2400+ and my general perception is [with a tiny% of exceptions] that the smarter guys are almost always stronger at chess when they put their mind to it.

People who have played for years and cannot break through 1200 must have the equivalent of a chess 'learning disability'...most of the kids I grew up with went through 1200 within 12 months of learning the game...

There are some strange people who use this site! Why come here if you've never really been into chess??

I have an I.Q. higher than 120 and I have never studied chess seriously, my rating while I was playing, the little I was playing, was above 2100. For a GM title the I.Q. of a player does not always match the title. There are certain abilities favoring strong correlation between the two but to say that because of a higher rating a player is smarter is ridiculous. Smart people are lazy, but then again many idiots are lazy too. Take for instance Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Jobs briefly attended Reed College in 1972 before dropping out, deciding to travel through India in 1974 and study Buddhism. Gates dropped out of Harvard.

I wouldn't have used this as a guideline, because even amongst people with high IQ's, each and everyone of them have something that they are better at. I have an IQ of 146, and I'm not necessarily good at chess, however I'm good at learning languages and things related to genetics. The biggest difference between someone with a high IQ and an average IQ, is the fact that they process information differently.

i saw on a show on discovery i think, it's a show about new science and how it interacts in our world. On this show they found that genius level thinkers brains work differently. In a CAT Scan average peoples brains neurons fire throughout the entire brain more spaced out so it takes longer for the connections to meet each other. In genius's brains their neurons fire primarily in their prefrontal cortex, which means their connections are much closer, which means they can get to their solutions much faster. The scientist said an average person could never be above a ranking of 1950. One piece of good news is Einstein said, "if you have an IQ over 100, say 120 you could give the 20 away and still be smart enough to do what you want in life." an average person has an IQ of 95 to 135. Genius level IQ is 140 or higher

Gathera dataset of IQsfrom individuals that play chess. Plotrating on the Y-axis and IQ on the X-axis. You should be able to see a positive/negative relationship. Or an unsupervised algo should work as well.

You should be able to specify a formula to convert IQ to expected chess rating or vice-versa using the mean and standard deviation of the two distributions. I think for IQ the mean is around 100 and the standard deviation around 15. I think that for chess the mean is around 1200 and standard deviation 200. So you work out how many standard deviations above the mean you are in IQ or chess, and your best estimate in the absence of any other information is to say you are the same number of standard deviations above the mean in chess or IQ. For example, if your chess rating is 1400, your IQ is probably 115. If your IQ is 130, you're probably capable of an average chess rating of 1600.

As a formula:

IQ = 100 + (15 x (Chess Rating - 1200)/200)

Chess Rating = 1200 + (200 x (IQ - 100)/15)

There must be a correlation. In IQ tests you have to spin cubes in your head, memorize numbers, recognize patterns. All that matters in chess too.