Does Chess Increase IQ? The Honest Answer
Does chess increase IQ? For most people, not in a measurable, general way. The strongest reviews of the research found that chess makes you much better at chess, while the effect on school grades and IQ-style reasoning is small and mostly disappears in well-designed studies.
That doesn't mean chess is a waste of time. It just means that if your real goal is sharper reasoning, you'll want to know which reasoning skill is actually weak for you first. IQ Tester finds that in about two minutes. Find my weak spots
Short answer: does chess make you smarter?
Here's where the evidence lands:
- Does chess increase intelligence in general? Not reliably.
- Does chess increase IQ in adults? There's no good evidence it does.
- Do chess puzzles increase IQ? They build chess skill. Transfer to other puzzles is weak.
- Is chess good for your brain? It's a great workout for focus, planning and calculation inside chess.
- Do smart people play chess? Some do, and stronger reasoners may pick it up faster, but that's different from chess causing the smarts.
That last point is the heart of the "chess IQ myth." It's easy to notice that good players seem clever and assume the game made them that way. The arrow may point the other way.
What studies found about chess and IQ
Researchers Giovanni Sala and Fernand Gobet have spent years testing this exact question.
The first wave: small positive effects
Their 2016 meta-analysis, which combined many studies of kids taking chess lessons, found a modest positive effect on math and general thinking skills. Chess fans quoted it a lot.
The catch: study quality
The same researchers noticed that the better the study design, the smaller the effect. When a chess group was compared with a group doing some other engaging activity (not just a group doing nothing), the advantage shrank toward zero.
In a later paper (Sala and Gobet, 2017, titled "Does far transfer exist?"), they looked across chess, music and working memory training and concluded that far transfer, meaning a skill spilling over into unrelated abilities, is rare.
So how much does chess increase IQ?
Based on the best-controlled studies, the honest answer is: close to nothing you'd notice on a general reasoning test. If a site gives you a specific number of IQ points from chess, be skeptical.
Why skills do not transfer far
This isn't just a chess problem. It's how learning works.
Near transfer is when practice helps something very similar. Chess puzzles help your chess games. Tennis drills help your tennis serve.
Far transfer is when practice helps something quite different. Chess helping your algebra, or your vocabulary, would be far transfer.
Near transfer happens all the time. Far transfer is the exception, because your brain gets good at what you actually repeat. A chess master's amazing memory for board positions works for real game positions. Studies going back decades show that when pieces are placed randomly, the advantage mostly disappears.
| Near transfer | Far transfer | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | Skill helps a similar task | Skill helps an unrelated task |
| Chess example | Tactics puzzles → winning more games | Chess → higher math grade |
| How common | Very common | Rare |
| Evidence for chess | Strong | Weak |
The same logic applies to Rubik's cubes and sudoku: you get excellent at the thing itself.
What chess does train
Chess is still a genuinely good hobby. Inside the game, you practise:
- Calculation. "If I go here, they go there, then I..." Following a chain of moves.
- Pattern memory. Recognising familiar positions and tactics instantly.
- Patience. Not grabbing the first move that looks good.
- Handling losses. Reviewing what went wrong without melting down.
- Focus. A long game rewards staying locked in.
These are real benefits of playing chess. They just tend to stay tied to the board unless you deliberately practise them elsewhere too.
Does chess improve memory?
It improves memory for chess positions. Whether it improves your memory for class notes or phone numbers is a separate question, and the evidence isn't there.
Chess puzzles vs reasoning drills
If what you actually want is better problem solving on tests and in school, it helps to practise the skill in the form it shows up.
Here's the difference:
| Chess puzzles | Reasoning drills |
|---|---|
| Train chess tactics | Train the skill you're weak at |
| Same format every time | Pattern, number, verbal and logic problems |
| Feedback: did you win material? | Feedback: which step broke |
| Great for chess rating | Better fit for test-style reasoning |
The tricky part is knowing which skill to drill. Maybe you're great at logic chains but slow at mental arithmetic. Maybe you freeze when a clock is running. Judging that about yourself is hard, because everyone thinks they know their weaknesses and most people guess wrong.
This is the step IQ Tester does for you. Its 16-question check points to which of 7 problems is slowing you down, like logic chains, pattern spotting or scattered attention. Then each day you get one tip and a 10-minute drill, weighted toward your weak spots. Find my weak spots
A 20-minute split for chess lovers
If you love chess and want reasoning gains too, try this:
- 10 minutes of chess puzzles for fun and rating.
- 10 minutes of a targeted reasoning drill on your weakest area.
- One sentence out loud explaining why the puzzle solution worked. Putting reasoning into words is its own skill.
If you love chess, keep playing
Does chess actually increase IQ? Probably not by much. But you don't need an IQ boost to justify doing something you love. Chess teaches patience, planning, and how to lose gracefully, and it connects you with people around the world.
Just don't count on it to fix a specific reasoning weak spot. For that, target the weak spot directly.
Find the reasoning skill chess isn't training
In the next two minutes, IQ Tester will give you a reasoning tier, tell you which of 7 common problems holds you back, and start you on today's 10-minute drill. You sign in with Google and pay once, with nothing to cancel.
FAQ
Does learning chess increase IQ in kids?
Early studies of chess lessons in schools found small gains, but the better-designed studies, where chess was compared with another engaging activity, found the effect shrinks to near zero. Kids clearly get better at chess, though.
Do chess puzzles increase IQ?
Chess puzzles build tactical skill and pattern memory for chess positions. There's little evidence they raise IQ, since skills tend to transfer only to very similar tasks.
Is chess a sign of intelligence?
Stronger reasoners may learn chess faster, but lots of highly intelligent people don't play, and practice matters far more than raw IQ for getting good. Your rating mostly reflects how much you've studied and played.
Does chess increase IQ, according to Reddit?
Reddit threads are split, with players sharing personal stories. The research is more consistent: chess helps chess, and far transfer to general IQ is weak.
Does chess improve problem solving?
It improves problem solving on the board. To improve problem solving on tests or in class, practise the specific kind of problem you struggle with, such as number, pattern or logic questions.