From: Albrecht Heeffer <al <at> NETPOINT <dot> BE>
Date: 1 dec 1999
Subject: Re: Normal people ?

Hans Kaplan shared with us some provocative ideas:

> A big mistake is to believe that chess or Shogiplayers in
> general have a high IQ.
> Its the opposite. The brain is getting programmed of these
> things, only programmed for chess or Shogi.

There exists a fair body of scientific studies on this matter.
In 1925 Djakow, Petrowski, and Rudik studied grandmasters to
determine the underlying factors of chess talent. The researchers
determined that high achievement in chess is based on exceptional
visual memory, combination power, speed of calculation, power of
concentration, and logical thinking. All of these talents
correlate positively with a high IQ, although a high IQ might
involve other abilities not needed for chess. So it is generally
considered that a high IQ is a necessary but not a sufficient
condition for grandmaster level chess. I would assume these
findings are valid for shogi professionals as well. It's my
guess that the average IQ of all shogi professionals is
significantly above 100.

> I played chess some years in Sweden, now its very clear for me that
> chesspeople in general are not as other people. Sorry to say,
> I found them not trustable but dishonest
> and strange. Many are asocial. Ofcourse not all, but an unnormal big
> percent.

I am not familiar with any scientific work about the
trustworthiness of chess players. I do not see what factors would
differentiate chess players from the rest. You seem to
have bad experiences. All I can say is that in the chess and
shogi clubs that I frequented I found people to be very social
and friendly. Try some European tournaments like in Nijmegen,
Holland, I find these socially fulfilling and have a lot of fun.

Albrecht Heeffer