Chess has influence in IQ improvements, according to numerous studies, but
I have found, finally, an interesting article, confirming my suspects:
From:
The Psychology of Chess Skill
By J. Corey Butler, PhD
'...One hypothesis that has been around for many years is that people who
become strong chess players have exceptional intelligence and/or memory.
This belief is quite popular with highly rated chess players, but
potentially discouraging to the general population. Fortunately, there is
little solid evidence to support this viewpoint. In fact, most researchers
have found minimal correlations between measures of IQ and official chess
ratings. On the other hand, many grandmasters appear to have a phenomenal
memory. They can recall games played years ago, move by move, and when
shown an unfamiliar chess position for only a few seconds, they can
reproduce it with very few mistakes on a new board and set. The catch,
however, is that this feat is only possible when they are given positions
taken from actual games. When the position is random, the master does
only about as well as the amateur. General intelligence and memory by
themselves do not appear to distinguish great chess players from ordinary
ones...'
You don´t need to become a master for being smarter. Practice Chess,
that´s all.