This is a serious question!

Do you need to have natural talent to be good at chess?

yes

Originally posted by Wilfriedva
yes

there goes my dreams 🙁

My point of view is that talent determines:
- the rate by which a chess player improves
- the maximum achievable skill level

The old Chess Life magazine did an article many years ago on that very subject. They concluded there was a correlation between chess skill and IQ. Back then when I checked the rating distribution chart I saw that the masters and above made up the top 2% of all USCF-rated players. I don't know if that still holds true today. To be a member of Mensa you must have an IQ in the 98th percentile.

i think the secret of becoming a good chess player is being surrounded, pulled up by other good chess players. I was not that good at chess in school, but there was a very smug boy in chessclub i was determined to beat, and after a lot of trying i got there and could beat him most games. but that was really thanks to him.

i notice that you can have quite stupid good chess players and very clever bad ones so i'm not sure its all about natural talent.

Originally posted by tim88
there goes my dreams 🙁

I believe Dr W was being sarcastic. Are you?

Originally posted by e4chris
i notice that you can have quite stupid good chess players and very clever bad ones so i'm not sure its all about natural talent.

Talent is not the same as intelligence.

No, you don't need natural talent to be good at chess.
You need natural talent to be Carlsen but anyone can play good chess.
Chess at it's core is a simple game ruled by simple "principles".
Once you understand them you can play good chess.

Carlsen recently said that too much intelligence is actually harmful for chess and Aronian said in London Chess Classic that it's a myth that you need to be highly intelligent to play goood chess.

Originally posted by Roper300
No, you don't need natural talent to be good at chess.
You need natural talent to be Carlsen but anyone can play good chess.
Chess at it's core is a simple game ruled by simple "principles".
Once you understand them you can play good chess.

Let us first establish what is good chess.Let's say playing at a current 2200 Elo level is considered good chess.

Ok,now I can disagree with you 🙂
To be Carlsen you need talent,a good memory and the character to do the labour.
Chess is not such a simple game.There's people who will never be any good at it,no matter how they try.
Besides,you always need talent to be good at something.

Intelligence has nothing to do with it,that I agree with.

Wasn't Bobby Fischer supposedly failing at school?

My stance on it is that you can only be as good at chess as you allow yourself to be
(i.e. time dedicated to playing, studying etc.. more time spent, better you become)

I postulate that it is the way you study that matters just as much or more as time and effort.

i have met a few good players who somehow seem to be 'wired' to play chess, like they have a copy of fritz in there head, they see tactics very quickly.... i think if you can read chess notation and see the game then thats a good sign, i've never been able to do that.

i've also met fairly strong players who achieve there grading by playing nothing but the queens gambit, i don't think it takes much intelligence to do that

Originally posted by e4chris
...

i've also met fairly strong players who achieve there grading by playing nothing but the queens gambit, i don't think it takes much intelligence to do that

It certainly shows determination. If they play it a lot, it means they know it well. Being patient, studying an opening thoroughly shows if not intelligence, then at least intellectual maturity.