[cy6erlion]

Playing chess does not make you smarter but studying chess does. You see when you decide to study chess theoretically you come to a point where you want to figure out a system to increase your chances of winning. Chess is very dynamic and complex, uncountable positions can be reached so the system you come up with should consider all of those factors. Chess theorist (not necessarily GM players who mostly memorize patterns) are able/trying to grasp complexity in a systematic way. The skills learned from studying chess can be applied to studying the stock market, distributed systems and other inherently complex systems.