Can intelligent person suck at chess, forever?

ozzie: Pl name two you'd suggest, and I'll read in order.

I've spent hours reading which books to read! I'm going w what you suggest and then I'll have moved forward.

Well you can become at least an international master by hard work and the right methos of training. Yes, intelligence certainly helps, but unless you are planing to be the world champion, you dont need to worry.

If you know how to manage stress better, you will beat even intelligent players

Just work hard

HEY 5 MONTHS AND UR ALREADY 1034 RATED IN CHESS.COM..NOT BAD...KEEP UP UR WORK, CHESS IS NO ROCKET SCIENCE...U WILL BREAK ALL BARRIERS AS LONG AS U LOVE THE GAME...KEEP UP UR WORK SIR!!

The Levitt Equation

Elo ~ (10 x IQ) + 1000  

Fine's Ideas Behind the Openings, and Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge, by Averbakh

...intellect plus intuition equals intelligence.

Wow you play bullet games on an iPhone. I couldn't imagine. Impossible to see the board properly on an iPhone. I've been playing seriously for about two years, and I'm still a 1300 player but my numbers have risen in the past six months, so perhaps, it just may take a little more time. I read a book not too long ago. The Game of Chess. By Tarrasch. Fascinating book. The book is for the novice players. He stated that if a person learns chess poorly, then he will practice poor chess and subsequently play poor chess, and never excel to his potential. So that answers your question. Tarrasch also stressed the importance of learning the end game first, less pieces on the board to worry about. Then study your tactics, and finally, openings. I have a digital copy of the book it was emailed to me so I'll pass it on if you'd like. I think your iPhone is your biggest problem. Bullet games coming in a close second. I play ten min games and I have just enough time to finish. I'd recommend 15/10 games, and when your in critical situations take a minute and make the right move. Someone told me once, if you see a good move, study the board for a while, you'll find a better one.

The quickest way for improvement at present would be to

A) practice tactics. I suggest chesstempo.com.

B) play 15|10 games, or 10|0 games if you don't have as much time. BEFORE MAKING ANY MOVES, pause for a few seconds. (Don't worry, you have at ten "free" seconds per turn!) Ask yourself what you are trying to achieve with that move, why you are playing it, and then try and find a better one! Check for tactics (i.e. hanging pieces), especially checks (don't check unnecessarily, but be wary of tactics that stem from checks from both sides). What worked when I started out was grinding on tactics for a minimum of half an hour, then playing a few long games right afterwards, and then taking a break. It feels like one of those optical illusions where you stare at something that doesn't make sense, then look back and see some "magical" picture. Anyway, it's a decent way to train your brain to look for patterns in a puzzle where there's a definite "right answer" each time, then turning around and trying to apply the recently-stimulated puzzle sense to an actual game.

The average human IQ is theoretically 100, yet the average chess rating is nowhere near 2000.

Carlsen = 2800 plus rating.

(10 x IQ) = 2800-1000

Carlsen's IQ= 180

NO way!!!!!

The two books (below) give you USCF 1600 rating knowledge, rather quickly.

• Chess Tactics, by Paul Littlewood, (1984), about 140 pages.
• Chess Endings Explained Move By Move, by Jeremy Silman, (1988), about 180 pages.

I'm skeptical of the Levitt Equation (and, well, the concept of IQ in general) myself, but you don't think that a brilliant chess prodigy with potential to become the strongest player who ever lived could have intelligence several standard deviations above the average?

I just took a look at a number of your games. You definitely need to improve your tactical skills. Positionally, your play is okay for your rating, but these two move tricks you fall for need to be addressed. Do at least 30 TT problems daily for a couple of weeks, and you should see an improvement.

Playing that much bullet as a total beginner has probably made you worse at chess. 

The OP's play is Scary Bad.

Read the following two books closely, and come back to the forums later.

• Chess Tactics, by Paul Littlewood, (1984), about 140 pages.
• Chess Endings Explained Move By Move, by Jeremy Silman, (1988), about 180 pages.

Time to hit the books, they will improve your play, by leaps and bounds.

I can't believe you are studying (or playing) 50+ hours per week.

You're probably just pushing wood for 49 hours, until you are comatose. 

I'm in the exact same boat. If I'm to understand what I just read, then the most logical reason for not improving is the quality of my life. That was the reason that I wanted to learn chess as an adult was that I was hoping to improve my life by improving my chess. Now I'm painfully aware that I am not learning or absorbing anything. My mind just isn't in it. I have a coach, but it's not really working for me. Apparently I need to work on my life first. Everything is just so disheartening.

There are several kinds of intelligence.

Chess skill starts in childhood.  I believe the oldest master was Nadorjf at 42...if you don't have it by age 20, you are a gonner.  But that does not mean you cannot enjoy the game.  Look at me, a patzer in my sixties....still, I pull off some great moves and even a brilliancy at times...the play is the thing....have fun....enjoy the mental challenge and be a good sport....that is what the game means.

I know someone who has done like you, started 4-5 months ago and gone from a rating of 600-something to 1400.

Tactics training. Look at games of better players -- and try to predict which move they are going to make next. The catch of playing bad players is that the moves you see them playing are not representative of "real chess". 

Intelligence is a complex concept and open to much debate. Howard Gardner expounded the view of multiple intelligence and then there is also cognitive speed versus depth. I think there are certain abilities necessary for good chess play but not exclusive. It is possible to use any intelligence to lean on. Memory, logic, spatial awareness etc, whatever works for you. What I will say is that no two people are exactly the same and one cannot predict totally.

 I myself can solve quite complex puzzles, but I need quite a lot of time hence, my live performance is poorer than correspondence, there are people who see complex positions quickly but given more time see no further than there first understanding. Einstein was said to be not a fast thinker but given time could think deeper than most.