Chess and IQ – A Mystery

There have been and still are ongoing discussions on whether IQ is connected to chess or not. I shall, in this article, state my hypothesis on this matter and provide as much proof as I can. If there are any arguments against my case, I expect them to have some form of proof as I here provide.

Chess

Chess is basically a battle on the board. What do you need in order to be able to play chess? You must be able to:

1. See the board
2. Know how the pieces move
3. Correlate the movements of the pieces with each other
4. Use the correlation of pieces to perform a certain objective
5. Use a set of objectives to help you perform one ultimate objective (i.e. checkmate)

Let us explore how the brain could possibly take on these seemingly incredible tasks.

A. How the brain works with chess

The initial task the brain encounters when first seeing chess pieces is the understanding of what those pieces are and what they do. When one first sees a chess board with pieces, there is utter confusion and the brain may signal the person to give up – but the person winds up associating these pieces with their respective positions on a board and how those pieces move.

This is done when the eye registers signals about the positions of each piece and how the pieces are associated. The newly established visual signals are transferred to the brain, which attempts to make sense of the board and pieces via neuron connections. These connections use previous experiences and memories, seen as similar to those found a chessboard, to help a person comprehend the positions of pieces on the board. Thus, a person, subconsciously, is able to associate these pieces with each other. Next, to learn how the pieces move, a person must be able to connect these symbols / pieces to a particular change in position. Thus, the brain uses further neurons, already connected with the initial neuron connections used to understand the original positions of the pieces, to connect with memories and experiences that involved connecting symbols with functions (i.e. waving a hand signals a greeting or a farewell). Thus, the brain is able to connect the functions of the chess pieces with the pieces themselves. Finally, the brain connects the functions with the original positions of the pieces. Therefore, without actually paying attention to the symbols representing positions or changes in position, the brain is able to connect initial positions with changes in position. As a person learns how to change the positions of chess pieces, new neuron connections associate with the older neuron connections used for the original change in position for chess pieces. A person is therefore able to associate new positions with similar changes in position.

Next, the brain must be able to associate the functions of the pieces with each other. This, of course, comes after the brain is able to master the positional changes of the pieces from any position on the board. At this point, visuals [of the board] are not necessary. The brain has already made enough connections to establish the visual-spatial relationships of the pieces and their associated functions; now, the brain can attempt to connect the functions of the pieces and focus them onto different positional spots established by memory. Thus, the brain is able to create combinations involving more than one piece in order to create an objective that focuses on particular positions on the board. This is how chess players ultimately train themselves – they begin to make more connections that allow them to logically see their combinations and responses to their combinations. This all done in the mind, and not actually on the board (at least not in OTB / over-the-board chess). It is obvious that playing out combinations directly on a board would make this process easier, but training directly within the mind, without the necessity of visual stimuli that represent the pieces, gives more difficult training that helps the neurons connect and allows for improvement of the game based on the connections of these neurons.

NOTE: The previous three paragraphs were based solely on my analysis of learning based on my knowledge of neuron connections. The true validity of this information is disputable, but nevertheless, my analysis should be roughly accurate.

It is clear that, at some point, every professional chess player thinks deeply about moves within their minds. But is my claim that visualization of chess pieces is a “luxury” when thinking about moves and combinations true? You may want to test this out, and do so thus: visualize a chess board with all the pieces completely set up – then play several moves in your head. You should notice that your chessboard and pieces don’t seem to have a particular shape / color / size, or even dimensions that connect to how you see them on the chessboard. You seem to simply “know” where the pieces go and how they move without having to actually picture a knight or a King. This is extremely normal; in fact, an account of this experience has been described by a person who plays blind chess: http://notebook.kulchenko.com/intelligence/blind-chess-and-working-memory. I must note that the points I make in this paragraph on based on this person’s account and on my realization that I have nearly the same experience as this person whilst playing blind chess, or even when thinking about moves.

Now, one may be able to understand how blind people are likewise able to play chess and improve at it. Once a person learns the pieces and how they move, the brain takes over and replaces the pieces with their directly associated movements / functions and connects with each other to achieve several goals: capturing pieces, gaining advantages, etc., to ultimately achieve checkmate.

It should now be clear that initial visual stimuli are absolutely necessary for a person to be able to play chess. Next, it should be clear that visual stimuli are not necessary for a person to improve at chess. Finally, it is necessary to note that non-visual improvement cannot be achieved without initial visual stimuli.

B. Potential chess rating

This factor of chess has been widely discussed over many years, and may never be truly resolved. Nevertheless, it must be noted that, since the brain can always continue to make connections between neurons, rating can be close to infinity. It must also be noted that rating is only a comparison to other players, and, if seen only as a comparison, then rating is just a number. But let us see rating as a number that represents ability (which it does, to a reasonable extent).

We must now consider that a chess rating of infinity can be reached if a person devotes his or her life to chess, practices nonstop, and has enough of an ability to connect previous chess experiences with new ones in order to improve to an infinite extent. But this is not the case – everybody can have limits to amount of connections they can make and to amount of effort they will put into chess!

Since improvement in chess involves using short-term and long-term memory, and the knowledge of patterns and their associated connections, people may not be able to make extremely complex connections involving these patterns. In other words, after making an extremely large amount of connections, a person may find that they are unable to see beyond a certain point limited by their short-term visual-spatial memory. They can think ahead approximately 20 moves or so, and finally stop because any more thinking is far too difficult for them to fathom. The brain is unable to make any more connections without an effort that a majority of humans are unable to conceive. Thus, a person may reach their peak level of play and their maximum rating. Thus, they reach a rating that may be considered close to their potential rating.

So, how should potential chess rating be defined? Potential rating would be the maximum rating a person can reach after making as many visual-spatial connections as he or she possibly can. After an incredible amount of connections, a person would be unable to progress without effort that could possibly cause the brain to overwork and thus create imbalances in short-term and long-term memory.

NOTE: the analysis of potential chess rating is based on my predictions based on my knowledge of neuron connections and the limits an average brain can achieve, based on factors directly related to chess improvement.
Now that we understand what factors can contribute to a maximum / potential chess rating, we may be able to make a distinct connection between chess rating and IQ.

IV. Chess and IQ

It should now be clarified that IQ involves several factors [which do not sum up to total intelligence] including: visual comprehension (of patterns, etc.), understanding of English to a limited extent, understanding of mathematics, and the ability to connect these factors to solve problems based on each of the three aforementioned areas. Another clarification, for chess rating: a limited ability to make further connections regarding combinations in chess can lead to a maximum or near-potential chess rating. Now, let’s comprehend a connection of chess and IQ based on previous studies.

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