I guess we can all agree that Victoria is a sucessfull Villain when it leads to such discussions. Or we are people who have too much time to waste.
It's possible that both of these are true at the same time.
Otherwise I would consider Immanuel Kant or someone like that as the benchmark for Smart and Intelligent.
Wait a minute. You want to make one of history's leading philosophers the benchmark for smart? I don't think that it's necessary for you to be a thought leader in an entire discipline for you to qualify as smart.
She plans multiple steps ahead (aka "4D chess") which is visible when...
Okay, without addressing your specific examples of Victoria's actions, I'd like to clarify the use of the term "4D chess."
Planning multiple steps ahead isn't 4D chess, or even 3D chess, it's just normal chess. Anyone who is consistently successful in playing normal chess against decent players is regularly planning multiple steps ahead. It's not a sign of special brilliance. Lots of people of average intelligence or slightly higher than average intelligence are able to do it successfully.
As you probably already know, 3D chess is when you superimpose multiple chess boards, so that you have to calculate for vertical movement, as well as horizontal movement. Obviously, this multiplies the difficulty factor considerably.
4D chess isn't an actual variation of chess. It's an expression we use to imply that someone is operating at such a high level that they are beyond the complexity of even 3D chess.
But planning multiple steps ahead isn't enough to qualify as 4D chess. It's not even enough to qualify as 3D chess. It's just normal chess. And that's how I rate Victoria. She's playing normal chess, and she's not bad at it, but she's not amazing, either. She's just an average player who's also the beneficiary of some amazing luck.
And yes of couse she had luck of having Marcus as a leverage against Monica and Melanie but she is playing her cards good, keeps her enemies under constant pressure and on top of it enjoys playing the game.
Keeping your enemies under constant pressure is usually a smart thing to do, but that doesn't mean that everyone who does that is doing it because it's smart, or because they're smart. Sometimes, it's just aggression. Victoria is ruthless, and ruthlessness is often paired with aggression.
As for enjoying playing the game, that's also not an indication of intelligence. Smart people, stupid people, and average people can all enjoy playing the game, and being smarter doesn't make you more likely to enjoy it, it just makes you more likely to be better at it.
I stand by my previous evaluation of her character. I think that you're overestimating her intelligence and acumen. But there's no reason why we should have to agree about it.
So godspeed Vicky you pervy empress! Even if you are just a pawn, you are the most interesting pawn.
She's not the most interesting to me, but she's certainly interesting. I enjoy her scenes and look forward to more in the future.