Does playing chess make you stupider in real life?

Getting good at chess is all about memorizing chess positions and pattern recognition.  So does spending a lot of time playing this game on the 64 squares make you stupider in everyday life, since decision-making in real life has really nothing to do with pattern recognition and knowing tactics on the eight by eights?

Anyone disagree?

Playing chess seems to make me stupider at playing chess.

Does studying make you stupider in real life?

Playing chess may perhaps make you more socially awkward, but certainly not more stupid (unless you spend WAY too much time on it ).

@blueemu: +1 

My pick for Thread of the Day!

I am sure you know those, or are even are those, that have lost relationships, marriages, mistresses, girlfriends, and been terminated from jobs, even ruined their careers because one could not get one's mind off of chess.  Pondering one's postal chess matches during family time or sneaking peeks at your old MCO-10 at work and letting things back up until bankrupcy looms?

Well, I would say it requires discipline -- you could get the appreciation of working hard at and improving at something, even if it's not very practical. Many people say they don't feel any parallels between the specific skill of chess and other things in life. Personally I often do, although I can't be certain that I'm not just imagining it.

And considering all the half-witted crap you inevitably have to wade through in one of those "Chessplayers are so smart!!!" threads, I'd say the answer here is pretty definitely yes.

Yes.

You're absolutely right! In fact, you should drop out of school and stop memorizing the times table and all other book knowledge. After all, the only way to be successful in life is to not be successful at anything to do with reason and logic and memorizing things.

Betteridge's law of headlines.

And now too we're sure to get plenty of what I call the "It's a bird, it's a plane" phenomenon:  as chessplayers everywhere completely miss the sarcasm in their usual semi-autistic fashion and proceed to ponder the gag question seriously (while it goes soaring Superman-like completely over their heads)...

I figure it can't hurt putting my answer out there whether it was sarcastic or not -- in case someone wanted to read some feedback.

lol

I saw this forum just after one discussing whether chess made people smarter...

Playing chess led me to these forums, browsing which certainly makes a mind stupider.

Maybe there will be a question of whether playing chess keeps your intelligence constant.

Oh wow did playing chess teach you that kind of "pattern recognition"?

Hey yeah..."If you play chess, will you never improve at anything else?"