I am adding another answer because the previous one has already been upvoted by others. I am retreating from my previous conclusion, and I think it would be unfair to carry forward the upvotes to my current opinion.
I looked into genetics after having this conversation between me and no comprende:
...........We know that boys get their X chromosome from their mothers........... we cannot say that mutations in the X chromosome is responsible for high intelligence ........... if mothers carry key to mental retardation in sons, it must be a hidden trait........
Response:
......... females get 2 copies, so recessive harmful mutations show up far less in females.............if one copy makes a good version and the other makes a bad version, you are still functional – no comprende
The old Dominant and recessive gene theory to explain why females suffer less genetic anomalies has been challenged. The reason is X inactivation. X inactivation prevents two copies of same allele being active on an offspring and it occurs at a very early stage. The choice of which one to disable is random, but it has been observed that even distribution of inactivation in XX heterozygote is better for health. Skewed inactivation has been associated with genetic diseases like breast cancer and mental retardation.
Unfortunately, we also found this. Basically, X-skewed mothers have only 25% chance of passing on their active (those responsible for retardation) alleles to their sons.
There are two conclusive studies that resolve the puzzle by showing that X chromosome is indeed key to our general intelligence, but it is still a male trait because X chromosome is enriched for male-specific but not female-specific genes. Females do not get to enjoy most of its benefits despite being the bigger carriers of it.
In conclusion I have to agree with Jennifer's theory, but she has not made it clear what "inheriting intelligence from mother" actually means. We should not try to seek validation of our social idealism in genetics because genetics records our past. It does present some hard limits, but not this time. I did not find any ill-effect of choosing an intellectually gifted female as mating partner.
From a scientist's standpoint, it will be interesting to see (sadly we will not live to see it) how our genes cope if our mating choices start changing. There are some inefficiencies in our genes that may pose some problems, but who knows?