What's is Magnus Carlsen's IQ?

Good point! and if you consider the perspective of a budding genius in school as opposed to a budding non-genius, in response to a challenging school topic:

budding non-genius: "this is so hard! i must be dumb"

budding genius: "this teacher hasn't a clue, i'll figure it out later"

and they travel their respective paths.

For me the latter mentioned idea has validty to a point but, I tend to think that the gifted say that.

The genius already knows better, realizes the futility in arguing and goes threw the motions, perhaps exerting themselves as little as possible, simply to extract the credit they desire and they go about their business, biding their time until, someone will not only actually listen but, who will actually do something to address the issues, instead of replying that their hands are tied by the school board.

Fair enough. I simply wanted to point out that, in principle, similarity of distribution shape doesn't imply any particular correlation, and therefore can't be taken as proof of (or even weak evidence for) a connection.

I think Magnus have a lot of qualities that makes him a great chessplayer,  his basic instincts and emphaty is very high. I think that emphaty is the key to creativity. we humans have developed to become very emphatic, we just have to realise it and learn to use it. concentration is also and important factor to become good live , we can all play great games in our own comfortsones.

Education and intelligence 

Unfortunately a lot of people assume that a given level of education is an indicator of intelligence. In my experience it is anything but.

When I was at school, the teacher used the word "dunce" to describe one boy in our class. Clearly this chap had even less interest in the books than the rest of us. But I remember the teacher giving him a hard time.

Outside of school this same boy was always tinkering with car engines. His interest in cars far outweighed any academic ambitions.

Some years after we left school, those of us who had gone on to university etc could not have missed the newspaper reports showing that same boy being paid £1 million pounds in 1971 by Rolls Royce for the patent which he developed for an engine modification. The same teachers who called this boy a dunce, could only dream of that kind of money.

Point is that intelligence has many different markers.

+1.Completely agree with you.Even Thomas Alva Edison and Albert Einstein's teachers called them a dunce.

I would just like to say thank you to fburton and nameno1had for your comments you truly have made this an enjoyable reading experiance for me

Edison referred to Tesla as beneath him, wouldn't listen to him or pay him for his work and each in their own way were definitely geniuses, if you ask me. I'd say Tesla was the more brilliant of the two but, I have given more merit, in later years, to Edison's work. I think perhaps had Tesla lived long enough, he would have also. I think the same could be said of Edison.

In fact, I asked myself the other day, what would the world have been like, if they'd have respected each other, taken the time to realize the relevance of their respective works and been willing to work together where applicable and be there for one another otherwise ?

True.Tesla is extremely underrated tbh.Few people know of his extraordinary brilliance with machines.

I think its safe to say the highest rated chess player in history is going to be a genius.. Therefore IQ and chess ability interlink

A genius at chess for sure. I'm not yet convinced (because I haven't seen the evidence) that chess ability and IQ are particularly strongly correlated.

"I think it's safe to say that licorice and ice cream sundaes taste good...therefore licorice ice cream sundaes are everyone's favorite sundae.  So say I, and there's your proof."

Just as ridiculous a statement.

@Twobit: according to answers on this quora page it's not harder to learn a second language when you get older:

http://www.quora.com/How-does-age-correlate-with-how-fast-one-can-learn-a-language

Why wouldn't IQ correlate with chess which is supposed to be a thinking game (in particular memory recall, judgment, and calculation)?  It would be like saying powerlifting doesn't correlate with physical strength.

You're responding to a 3 year old post, to a person who has no visible account activity since mid-2013 ;)...

Magnus is amazing fullstop.

I'm beginning to believe that IQ has little to do with playing a good game of chess - but good spatial sense has.  This would explain why children take to chess so easily.  That, and a willingness to take risks.  Boldness and courage on the battle field...and a thorough understanding of the game.

An IQ test is about recognising logical patterns, and as chess is pretty much the same thing I think there is some correlation. I think most people can reach ~2600 with enough tutoring and such, but to come above that, like a Super GM, you need something special.

i thought he was retartet

Interesting question.  I think having good spatial ability would be an enormous asset in chess.  I've just started chess and am doing well enough, but the "visualize the chess board" problems leave me stumped.