The game of chess typically is dubbed a brainy game, a gymnasium for the mind, likened to life, a game with heightened complexity, totally mind boggling and whatnot.
As complex as the game seems, the rules of the game are just as basic as any other , only that to be good at it, it requires high intellectual functionality hence a premise for the debate ; Are all chess players individuals with high IQs ? There might be a correlation, but not all chess players are emotionally intelligent, or socially intelligent, you can just be very good at chess and nothing else ! A savant maybe ..
I'm one for the theory that chess shapes an individual's person, it makes one insightful, more organized, planned , and full of foresight, no matter how clumsy the chess player, he definitely has some variations up his sleeves, he just may not do as planned. Putting into consideration the bogus permutations of moves / variations possible after move 4 , I doubt any reasonable chess player will just run into a line without at the minimum having it looked at/ studied . Bringing this into the social setting, it's unlikely for a chess player to just run into a situation without having prior thought as to what he is getting into, only that many times we down play our analysis.
Intuition is about the most important factor for chess players, trusting your intuition is a virtue in this regards. No one sees it all with perfect clarity , no one knows it all, but sometimes that gut feeling is good enough to make the difference in whether you convert a game or not..
Trust your intuition! , Always, and do it some more!
Chess transcends the mind boggling calculations and sometimes goes down to just that gut feel.. probably a sac , it just feels right, check with proper internal logic and afterwards decide on if the move is worth it or not, I believe intuitive players are the spice makers and the creatives in Chess, they make the game more fun than expected..(as many non-chess folks will readily argue that chess is a bore), intuitive players make the difference!
I hope we keep up the chess culture, and not bask in the supposed intelligence attached to the game, and try to be better persons than just chess machines..
Chess is life , keep living !