Why do people still think chess is for smart people?

@xi_32
are you sure? In the 80s or so..probably. But speaking of today: aren't chess ressources quite accessible!?

@xi_32 . I remember years ago there was this kid who went to Harvard and was in the chess club. We played like 10 games , I didn't lose 1. I always consider myself to be a weak player due to consistency and going for positions that look interesting but may be disadvantageous down the road. Also my brain function is probably declining due to medical reasons but at some point i will get to be over 2000 on this site come hell or high water. Chess is definitely a struggle, the better I get the more humble I become. It is always nice to wipe the smug face off of someone and watch them in real time as they struggle knowing they are lost just waiting for the final blow. The older i get the more each day wears on me, I cannot imagine living until I'm 60, I'm not sure if I will be able to afford Living in the next 10 years let alone 20. Society is not what I thought it was at 10 years old, People especially those who feel entitled to have perfection for low cost have eroded me to the point where I can hardly talk to them without feeling agitated in some way shape or form.

Grandmasters who play 1.d4 clearly have a higher IQ than grandmasters who play 1.e4

(/s)

chess makes people feel stupid, so if someone is good at it, then they must be smart.

This is the thinking behind "you have to be smart to play chess."

@PositionalMan are you sure you really understand what mathematicians do? Computers can't replace the job of a mathematician but they can replace the job of a chess player. This is like saying computers are better at physics than people - no they aren't, you need people to make the discoveries. I think it's a valid argument that if computers can easily do something then it doesn't require intelligence - not saying it's right, just it shouldn't so easily be dismissed.

It was just an example. Also it's quite stupid to call "chess players are stupid just cause a computer can learn it in 24 hours." Both are in a different level and uncomparable.

Fair enough.

@eqjugg

As @Darksouls pointed out, if you have wealth you can PAY a grandmaster to teach you faster and better than you can learn on your own. Yes chess resources are open and available. But chess resources are also open and available to the people with wealth. But wealth is not open and available to everyone. Chess resources + money > chess resources. This is even more true in the developing world where we will never know how many Carlsons and Fischers from the developing world never made it because they did not have the resources to get to the grandmaster level. They had to spend their time doing other activities such a find food and clean water so they could eat and drink!

3/10 of top people in the world have degrees. But I would say the percentage of GMs with degrees is a lot higher. Especially nowadays when foreign grandmasters are invited to study abroad in the US (colleges like Texas Tech, UTD, Webster, UMBC, etc). For the top 10, they have started playing while in school and even though they are extremely smart/gifted individuals, they haven't gotten the time to get the degree. But for other GMs, they may take a "pause" on chess to get their degree (one example could be Le Quang Liem, a 2700 FIDE GM who was at Webster for the past few years).

The whole idea on smartness doesn't mean much. It is hard to argue that Lebron James is not smart because he has one of the smartest basketball minds in the NBA (he knows all of the opponents's plays, can give play by play analysis of the game at the press conference, etc). His basketball IQ is really high. Similarly, Magnus Carlsen's chess IQ is really high. They are both extremely smart in their fields of excellence.

Why do people still think chess is for smart people? I think you can see the general attitude and the image of chess by occasional chess scenes on TV. It's usually like two moves and checkmate, surprise, surprise. It gives the idea that chess is complicated to the extent that even experts can miss very important details. Only brilliant people can see what's really going on.