[argc]

If you can remove opening preparation (and all preparation) I think it probably is. Calculating moves is a good measure of working memory and is an important aspect of intelligence. There are certainly other things that are important, like creativity, but anyways, intelligence is probably not a specific enough word for this to be meaningful. But as an example, I think I'm intelligent enough in a lot of ways but my ability to calculate far ahead is held back by my mediocre working memory.

[glxxyz]

Yes brute force RAM that works with these types of problems is of important, and is the reason why the vast majority of us would never be able to become a grandmaster no matter how much of our lives we devoted to it. Here's a clip of GM Peter Svidler talking about his memory: https://youtu.be/ssBcIg3cEPI?t=3622

In the same way, most of us would never be able to compete at any given physical sport no matter how much time we put in.