You make some interesting points especially the first about tech enthusiasts seeming to also be into chess.

I was thinking this just the other day, I've recently started a chess channel on Youtube, and a Twitter account. I noticed that as I was looking for people to follow, a lot of the chess people also had tech related interests and jobs.

Personally, I find it increases my focus, which is an (in my opinion) underated part of intelligence, it can be said that genius is simply the ability to focus on one thing for extended periods of time.

Obviously it's a bit more complex than that, however focus is an integral part of learning. As is functional memory, the ability to hold patterns in the mind, and to recall them and put them to use in relation to the game you're playing.

I find it interesting that you couldn't find any studies on whether chess increases general intelligence. Perhaps it's because such a study would span many years, possibly decades ... maybe a study is happening right now!

Anyway, great article, I really want to follow you, however it seems the follow function is not available at the moment. I will do so whenever I can, and please check out my chess channel, I'd love your comments and insights.

Cg

EDIT: I have since followed you by going straight through Steemit, I hope they fix this bug soon!