Was this guy an idiot?

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SaintGermain32105

Of my fifty-seven years I have applied at least thirty to forgetting most of what I have learned or read. Since then, I have acquired a certain ease and cheer which I should never again like to be without. (...) I have stored little in my memory, but I can apply that little, and it is of use in many and varied emergencies. I keep it in order, but resist every attempt to increase its dead weight.
―Emanuel Lasker

 

How good you you mean when you say, "very good at chess?" 

It is in fact very rare for the best chess players, the international grand masters, to be world class in anything else.  So that's not evidence that they are geniuses.  And I've never heard of any studies showing a strong correlation between the most common numerical rating for chess players (Elo rating) and IQ.

Ken Rogoff is the only example I know of someone who's world class in two fields.  In 1976 he played in an Interzonal tournament, a qulifier for the world championship.  In 1978 he became an international grand master.  In 1980 he received a PhD in economics from MIT.  He's been an economist for the International Monetary Fund and the Fed's Board of Governors.  He's currently a professor of economics and public policy at Harvard.  And I guess he still plays pretty well since, "In 2012 he drew a blitz game with the world's highest rated player Magnus Carlsen."  See the Wikipedia article Kenneth Rogoff.

Botvinnik was world champion, an electrical engineer, and an early pioneer in computer chess.

Emanuel Lasker was a world champion and a research mathematician.  He wrote a book on philosophy which seems to have had no influence on the field.

And that's about it. 

I think it's likely that being, "very good at chess," requires enough study and practice to preclude achievement in other areas.  And there might be a specific talent involved.  Geniuses certainly don't automatically play world class chess without a lot of work.

Stolen_Authenticity

I seem to recall, that 'the late' "Fred Reinfeld" was in some way; Also doubly accomplished! .. Though, at the moment, I forget, what.. besides 'chess- author' and 'player' perhaps. 0: