[javanix]

I'd consider myself a good programmer but an absolutely terrible chess player, so no, I don't think they really have much bearing.

[amag]

I second that. I never had much interest in learning to play chess well. In my case I guess it's about when programming I work towards a specific outcome I find interesting for some reason. Winning/losing isn't an interesting outcome for me.

[javanix]

I cannot for the life of me make it through a game of chess without making some catastrophic blunder.

If programming was that unforgiving I'd have to buy a new system every time I wrote a function.