From the Go paper:
Conclusions The results of our study revealed that Baduk experts develop structural fronto–cingulo–striato–thalamic connectivity, as evidenced by increased FA of WM tracts, as compared with those of non-experts. These structures are associated with cognitive processes that include spatial perception, attention, working memory, executive control, and problem solving (Chen et al., 2003). In addition, the experts' increased FA in inferior temporal areas indicates that, unlike the situation in controls, task-specific templates had developed in experts' neural mechanisms, enabling the efficient operation of tasks related to playing Baduk (de Rover et al., 2008). Right hemispheric dominance in Baduk experts also suggests that the involved tasks are mainly spatial processes (Thomason et al., 2009). Therefore, this study demonstrated that brain training, such as that required to become an expert Baduk player, might cause structural changes in the brain that are particularly helpful with regard to engaging in such foundational tasks as learning, abstract reasoning, problemsolving, and self-control.
So, they got (? or chose the profession because they were?) good at a number of specific tasks that are components of IQ, but they aren't good at IQ measuring tasks overall.
This Go paper is one of the things I point to as evidence that while strategy games may benefit you cognitively early on, there are diminishing returns and they probably set in well before expert skill levels.
In school we learn wonderful things like how to find integrals, solve equations, and how to calculate valence electrons of elements based on their atomic numbers. Because, obviously, they will be very important in our futures -- especially if we become artists, musicians, writers, actors, and business people.
We learn so much in school. Yet, when most people look at paintings they don’t truly understand them. When most people listen to music, they don’t really know what they’re hearing. Most people would fail simple music theory tests, even though many have listened to music most days of the week since they were babies!
Similarly, if you have working eyes, you should ask “Why do shadows look like they do? What color is snow, really? Can I predict the colors of different colored materials at different times of the day? If not, why? I have been seeing them for years, haven’t I?”
I think the problem here is that people can’t understand what is really important. Calculus, mechanical physics, chemistry, microiology, etc. are interesting to learn, perhaps. But, they are relatively advanced topics. People don’t use them in daily life unless they are professionals. Why not learn things that we think about every day instead of those that will frankly be useless to most?
Why don’t we learn how to understand our senses?
Learning about sight, sounds, thoughts, etc. should fit in somewhere in the first year of high school. Everyone needs to learn the physics of art and color (e.g. this and this), music theory, rationality, and logic.
For example, why should people start learning (or pretending to learn) philosophy, the art of thinking, in college? Should we be able to make life-changing decisions without even knowing how to spot errors in our thinking?
As a science researcher, I know first hand how hard it is to find a good balance between being well versed in worldly topics and being focused on a field in order to excel in it. But, both of these areas of study should not be called the true basics, in my opinion.
As president of my school's philosophy club, I took a different approach to teaching the basics of philosophy and thinking than traditional classes do. Instead of asking students to discuss the lives and ideas of famous Greek philosophers, I asked them to analyze their own lives and make their own philosophies. As expected, they were terrible at it at first. But, by the end of the year people began to actually think about the world around them.
So, my point is that we should -- in life and in school -- emphasize actual everyday thinking more.
The biggest challenge is that it takes so long!