What's the relation between chess and math?

There is no relation between mathematics and chess chess at all.  All people who claim otherwise:  tell just one mathematical theorem which helps you to play chess better. Mathematics is abstract , chess is concrete. By the way the metaphor of calculating in chess has nothing to do with  calculation in the mathematical sense - it's just a word-  and even more: doing math has nothing to do with calcuculation. According Poincaré mathematics is the art to call  different things with the same name. And just an apercue by Jean-Pierre  Sierre one of the greatest mathematician of the 20thn century: I became mathematician because I disliked  calculating. 

Having said all that : It doesn't exclude the possibility that there are not few people that excel both at chess and mathematics , as there are not few people that excel both at music and chess.

I think it is correlation; intelligence helps in chess and intelligence helps in math (though it is certainly nothing compared to discipline), so intelligent people might be good at both

As a mathematician, I disagree. Which means I owe you a theorem. But first, a definition:

A Nash Equilibrium point (in terms of chess) is a strategy combination (W, B), where W, B are strategies, such that no player can increase their advantage by a unilateral departure from (W, B). If one player sticks rigidly to his Nash Equilibrium strategy, W, then the other player cannot increase his advantage by selecting a strategy other than his Nash Equilibrium strategy, B. In other words, W is the best reply to B and B is the best reply to W.

Nash's Theorem: For every finite n-person game, there exists at least one Nash Equilibrium point. From the definition and theorem, it is trivial to mathematically prove the existence of such a thing as a best move or in some cases moves.

You could also look at it in terms of Group Theory. Not sure how useful that would be, but you could do it. Also calculation in chess is in fact mathematical, especially if you are using a computer to do it, which uses an algorithm, which is of course math.

If Chess is related to Math, how come I can't beat chess hustlers although I excel in Math. They are below average in Arithmetic.

For math, there is not a critical importance to being able to calculate in one's head.

Just because you can do vector calculus doesn't mean you can solve differential equations.

Plenty of differential equation solvers who are not so good at chess.

Yes, those concepts blend well with intermediate Chessique Mathematics, like using multiplication rather than bloating up the very same problem with basic addition (ahem).

Game theory

While technically chess is a finite graph (hence everything that you can prove to be true in chess will be a ZF theorem or even a theorem of some weaker system); chess skill has literally nothing to do with math skill.

I would say there is more of a correlation between the two as opposed to any sort of causation. Sure, maybe maths has some sort of thing to do with chess, as I have played many people at my school, many of which have never had any "proper" experience with chess, they only know the rules. Unsurprisingly, (or maybe it's a surprise, depending on who you ask), I've found that the students with higher mathematical abilities played a better game of chess. Then again, you see the top chess players not even know what pythagoras' theorum is, so, again, probably just a coincidence.

That's an intriguing and beautiful view, thanks Wsama for this thought! - and apart from that doesn't this advocate looking at the rich world of chess960, so alien and unbeknownst to the majority of us?

It does, doesn't it? I hope to someday see 960 adopted as one of the main variants in the professional league... then everybody would be playing it. I feel this would also allow traditional chess some time to recuperate and taken afresh as far image goes. Because of this view, I think chess variants are pretty good, whereas at first I was a bit reluctant, much like a student who'd spent years studying the opening would've. 

Chess is math because if you have 1 king and your opponent has 0 kings then you win.  It's all 1s and 0s.

Is it possible to build an universal Turing machine using only chess boards (seems the case if you allow a potentially infinite supply of them)?

It would legit to say that "maths is chess" then.

Refresh my memory what is Turing machine?

Children who study classical music and hour or more per day, including reading sheetmusic, have been shown to do particularly well in math.  When I became a teacher at a high school, I noticed that most of my gifted and talented students sat at one end of the cafeteria during lunch. I later learned they did that because it was the end closest to the music department, where many of them spent part of their lunch period.