Can intelligent person suck at chess, forever?

Hate to state the obvoius but if Mrs Pogonina joined a club and which consisted of 5 1200 rated players, her club rating woudln't be much more than 1700 unless she went for years and played hundreds of games.

In one club my rating was at 2400 for a while.  Of course everyone's club rating was above 2000 so take that to mean what you will.

Rating is only a relative value.  No one can get much higher than, say, 4 or 5 standard deviations from the pool's mean.

Pogonina is a pretty average player.  That's for sure.

Don't be daft. She is ranked as the number 24 female-player in the entire world. You have absolutely no clue about chess.

Yereslov!  Stop commenting on established players & be concerned bout ur own progress. 

Unless your one of those who" Yell or Abuse at you chess peices when you lose"

Shut up troll, the world is sick of your snide comments.  For your information, the comment you made would not have been sarcasm if meant as a friendly joking poke - it would have been sardonic or even satirical.  Fine; that deals with the one that wasn't aimed at me - care to pretend you weren't being the same pathetic abuser you always are when you replied caustically to me with little substance or relevance?  Interesting that you call me emotional and an idiot.  Reflection and deflection, my childish little friend.

The theory of reflection cannot be applied to this case. I am a genius and a god among men. You are common folk.

Oh, boys, dear boys! ... come now ... my goodness gracious ... isn't there enough combat in the world already? ... how about making love, not war? !

Sarcasm: harsh or bitter derision or irony.

I have to disagree with the beautiful/intelligent Natalia, which is putting me way out on  a weak limb because of her chess status, but I must say it makes more sense That a weaker player study more rather then play more games, and a stronger player to play  more games to put their learned skills into real play action? Do you not think?

And Motherinlaw, good advice! lolo

Here_Is_Plenty wrote:

Natalia_Pogonina wrote:

 I've seen people play regularly for decades and still remain only at club level.

Yep, that's me :)

:-)

Coming in late to this discussion, I know I must be repeating others when I say "Yes, of course an intelligent person can suck at chess forever!"  I can say that with Authority, since I Are One. 

Everybody has Some intellectual limits, of course.  And the original question seems to presume the presence of a strong motivation to succeed at chess.  I'm sure others have pointed out here that not Everyone is invested enough in improving her or his chess skills to spend much time and effort working at it. (e.g., as a psychologist, I'm much more invested in using my spare time to improve my skills in that area!)

In summary, as we say in my field (with regard to motivation and individual  potential) "How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?  Only one, if the lightbulb is ready to change." 

(Actually, I might be the only one in my field who actually says that.  Most of the others are way smarter than me.... ;-) )

There are a number of things that go into learning how to play chess. My favorite free online resources are: 

1. Dan Heisman's "Novice Nook" column on www.chesscafe.com

2. "Predator at the Chessboard" by Ward Farnsworth. This is a free online book (Google it) and Farnsworth is a very articulate explainer of tactics (maybe more useful for those of us who are more on the verbal side)

3. ChessTempo.com - tactics training

Others said not to play too much speed chess if you want to improve. I'd second that (Heisman also talks about that in a very useful way). 

Btw, I started playing chess at age 39 and improved by about 400 rating points in a couple years. 

Ignore the idiots who suggest that because your rating hasn't improved, you're not capable of improving. If you want to improve, you just need a little more method and a lot less speed chess.

mothers in law are not allowed to be intelligent, motherinlaw.  You may as well claim to be kindly, considerate and never to interfere. :)

For myself I suspect I was, just by the narrowest margin, a better player at 23 than I am at 63.  But I enjoy my game just as much.

Intelligence is too odd a thing to have much to do with ... well anything really.  Certainly not chess.  Would you call Fischer or Morphy intelligent?

You make good points ---- for an OLD guy! 

The best way to improve is by going to the library. Order as many chess books as you can and play them over the board.

Play challenging opponents. Review your games. Read books. Study famous matches. Realize that you will never stop learning.

I learned a ton early on, from books.

I am guessing books learn from you now?  Or did you punch a librarian and get a lifetime ban?  Famous court case with ECO leading to a restraining order?

I was first introduced to chess when I was about 10 or 11,by my friend, same age. He said he just got this chess set for his birthday, with instructions and wanted me to learn with him so we could play together. When I first saw it, recognized the checker board, and wondered why the pieces were not all the same? lolo So after much reading and rereading we started to play the pieces correctly, never did lean for a while the pawn options for capturing, like ep.

         Over time we played equal, then one day I had a brain storm idea, why not buy a book on chess, wow!  So I did and then I started beating my friend regularly to the point he did not want to play the game any more. So I gave up the game as well. Not until I was 19 and joined the military did I touch a chess piece again.  Like anything in life, studying pays dividends.

Ha! I almost spilled my coffee!