Whom would you put your money on to win in 3-D chess? Also, who is more intelligent? A) Bashir B) Spock
Does Bashir even play chess? I would say he's probably the smarter of the two, but there is no indication he's the chess wiz that Spock is.
As far as I know, Bashir wasn't depicted playing chess, but he's a genius and I'm sure could pick it up very easily.
An important consideration. Even if Bashir were more intelligent than Spock (not a given), Spock being more skilled in that particular game would give him the advantage. Add to that the fact that Spock obviously prides himself in his ability to figure odds exactly. Good for winning at chess (and poker too). Bashir did play poker in one episode didn't he?
It must have really irked Spock, the chess master, that Kirk beat him frequently (every single time on the show, lol).
That makes me question how good Spock is at chess. Then again, Data was defeated by Counselor Troi. Which has to be one of the most ridiculous scenes in all of Star Trek.
I'm about convinced Data had some HAL9000 thing going on where he lets people win against him at chess ~50% of the time. It's the only goddamn way that scene makes any sense. 'Game of intuition' my eye.
I can see a strong ability to calculate odds being indicative of a general mental acuity that would imply the ability to acquire skill at chess, but not much direct application. Why do you think so?
I would say that in chess, you calculate ahead as far as your mind can manage and besides that chess is a game of experience. You learn patterns in the board and infer which position is more favorable to you based on your knowledge of what sort of positions are favorable. But Data should be able to calculate all possible positions of the board several moves in advance. I suppose since the rules of 3d chess tend to be 'Any piece can arbitrarily move anywhere' it might be an Arimaa situation where there are too many possible moves for Data to calculate.