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Date: 19 Oct 2006 22:08:15
From: Henri H. Arsenault
Subject: Scintific American article on chess and intelligence
For those who have dropped out of the speculations on the chess and IQ
thread, there is an article on chess and intelligence in the August
issue of Scientific American. The article reviews scientific studies
on the question, which have proven a number of surprising facts such
as that there is no correlation between IQ and chess ability.

It is interesting to see the differences betweeen how grandmasters
find the right moves vs how weaker players do it.

The article is available on the web.

Henri




 
Date:
From: Martin Brown
Subject: Re: Scintific American article on chess and intelligence


 
Date: 23 Oct 2006 11:03:43
From: Larry Tapper
Subject: Re: Scintific American article on chess and intelligence

[email protected] wrote:
> Henri H. Arsenault wrote:
> > For those who have dropped out of the speculations on the chess and IQ
> > thread, there is an article on chess and intelligence in the August
> > issue of Scientific American. The article reviews scientific studies
> > on the question, which have proven a number of surprising facts such
> > as that there is no correlation between IQ and chess ability.
> >
> > It is interesting to see the differences betweeen how grandmasters
> > find the right moves vs how weaker players do it.
> >
> > The article is available on the web.
> >
>
> I have cursively read this article but found no reference to IQ tests
> at all, to say nothing about your claim the IQ scores and chess ratings
> are either uncorrelated or, worse, negatively correlated.

Here's a paragraph that comes close to saying that:

"...At this point, many skeptics will finally lose patience. Surely,
they will say, it takes more to get to Carnegie Hall than practice,
practice, practice. Yet this belief in the importance of innate talent,
strongest perhaps among the experts themselves and their trainers, is
strangely lacking in hard evidence to substantiate it. In 2002 Gobet
conducted a study of British chess players ranging from amateurs to
grandmasters and found no connection at all between their playing
strengths and their visual-spatial abilities, as measured by
shape-memory tests. Other researchers have found that the abilities of
professional handicappers to predict the results of horse races did not
correlate at all with their mathematical abilities."

Of course it's possible that the Gobet study only proves that
shape-memory is less significant than some might have thought. Add
other skills to the test (such as logic perhaps) and a correlation
might well emerge.

LT



>
> Yes, the article does say that it seems to the author that chess
> masters are made not born. But that is hardly a scientific evidence
> about the correlation between IQ and chess.



 
Date: 22 Oct 2006 17:28:44
From:
Subject: Re: Scintific American article on chess and intelligence

Henri H. Arsenault wrote:
> For those who have dropped out of the speculations on the chess and IQ
> thread, there is an article on chess and intelligence in the August
> issue of Scientific American. The article reviews scientific studies
> on the question, which have proven a number of surprising facts such
> as that there is no correlation between IQ and chess ability.
>
> It is interesting to see the differences betweeen how grandmasters
> find the right moves vs how weaker players do it.
>
> The article is available on the web.
>

I have cursively read this article but found no reference to IQ tests
at all, to say nothing about your claim the IQ scores and chess ratings
are either uncorrelated or, worse, negatively correlated.

Yes, the article does say that it seems to the author that chess
masters are made not born. But that is hardly a scientific evidence
about the correlation between IQ and chess.



 
Date: 21 Oct 2006 13:49:27
From: John Evans
Subject: Re: Scintific American article on chess and intelligence
I was inspired by that article to write my own feelings about it in my blog.
I had a couple people who liked it. You might want to give it a read.

http://growwithchess.com/2006/10/no-substitute-for-hardwork.html

Thanks,
John
http://growwithchess.com/


"Henri H. Arsenault" <arseno@phy.*nospam*ulaval.ca > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> For those who have dropped out of the speculations on the chess and IQ
> thread, there is an article on chess and intelligence in the August
> issue of Scientific American. The article reviews scientific studies
> on the question, which have proven a number of surprising facts such
> as that there is no correlation between IQ and chess ability.
>
> It is interesting to see the differences betweeen how grandmasters
> find the right moves vs how weaker players do it.
>
> The article is available on the web.
>
> Henri




 
Date: 20 Oct 2006 03:58:32
From: John Sloan
Subject: Re: Scintific American article on chess and intelligence
"Henri H. Arsenault" <arseno@phy.*nospam*ulaval.ca > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> For those who have dropped out of the speculations on the chess and IQ
> thread, there is an article on chess and intelligence in the August
> issue of Scientific American. The article reviews scientific studies
> on the question, which have proven a number of surprising facts such
> as that there is no correlation between IQ and chess ability.
>
> It is interesting to see the differences betweeen how grandmasters
> find the right moves vs how weaker players do it.
>
> The article is available on the web.
>
> Henri

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00010347-101C-14C1-8F9E83414B7F4945

JS