This is mainly my personal view and experience although I've done some research on the subject. Regarding "skill" genius: of course you can get extremely good

This is mainly my personal view and experience although I've done some research on the subject. Regarding "skill" genius: of course you can get extremely good at anything by practice, but getting into that very last percentile seems to demand some kind of innate talent. Chess is a good example. The Polgar sisters was groomed from from childhood by their father to become grandmasters. Studies shows that chessplayers rewire their brains to use the part normally used to recognize faces to remember positions... so you can train your chess memory. But even though the Polgar sisters are Grandmasters they're nowhere near the raw talent of Kasparov and lately Magnus Carlsen who've defeated Karpov and become Grand Master at the age of 13 and I think now is ranked #2 in the world. I would argue that you stand a much better chance of training your brain for creative genius (in for instance science or IT) than beating Magnus :) The same probably applies for piano etc Bonus url: Magnus Carlsen speaks of his talent... he doesn't seem to agree with me :) http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6187 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6187