Chess Quotes 1

7/30/2019 Chess Quotes 1

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These Quotes are sayings from GMs or other famous people that have been passed

from generation to generation primarily by word of mouth (although they may also

have been put into some written form) and they represent a truth or some bit of

useful wisdom that is usually based on common sense or practical experience. The

effect of a Quote is to make the wisdom it tells, seem to be self-evident.

Chess Quotes list

01 When you see a good move, look for a better one(Emanuel Lasker)

02Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty

(Dominic Lawson)

03The Pin is mightier than the sword

(Fred Reinfeld)

04

We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for

sacrifices is part of a Chessplayers nature

(Rudolf Spielman)

05 All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess(Bobby Fischer)

06

A win by an unsound combination, however showy,

fills me with artistic horror

(Wilhelm Steinitz)

07

The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the

Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature

and the player on the other side is hidden from us

(Thomas Huxley)

08

Adequate compensation for a sacrifice is having a sound combination

leading to a winning position; adequate compensation for a blunder ishaving your opponent snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

(Bruce A. Moon)

09Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation

(Max Euwe)

10I dont believe in psychology. I believe in good moves

(Bobby Fischer)

11

Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like

Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game

(Nigel Short)

12Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events

(Benjamin Franklin)

ss Quotes http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/chess_quotes.ht

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13Even the laziest King flees wildly in the face of a double check!

(Aaron Nimzowitsch)

14

Combinations have always been the most intriguing aspect of Chess.

The masters look for them, the public applauds them, the critics

praise them. It is because combinations are possible that Chess

is more than a lifeless mathematical exercise. They are the

poetry of the game; they are to Chess what melody is to

music. They represent the triumph of mind over matter(Reuben Fine)

15

I give 98 percent of my mental energy to Chess

Others give only 2 percent

(Bobby Fischer)

16Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders

(Savielly Tartakower)

17

Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a

large number of professional violinists

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

18Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack

(Wilhelm Steinitz)

19The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake

(Savielly Tartakover)

20

Your body has to be in top condition. Your Chess deteriorates

as your body does. You cant separate body from mind

(Bobby Fischer)

21

Of Chess it has been said that life is not long

enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not Chess

(William Ewart Napier)

22

I have added these principles to the law: get the Knights

into action before both Bishops are developed

(Emanuel Lasker)

23Life is like a game of Chess, changing with each move

(Chinese proverb)

24You cannot play at Chess if you are kind-hearted

(French Proverb)

25 Its just you and your opponent at the boardand youre trying to prove something

(Bobby Fischer)

26

It is the aim of the modern school, not to treat every position

according to one general law, but according to

the principle inherent in the position

(Richard Reti)

27The Pawns are the soul of the game

(Francois Andre Danican Philidor)

28

In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before

everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied andmastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening

must be studied in relation to the endgame

(Jose Raul Capablanca)


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29Without error there can be no brilliancy

(Emanuel Lasker)

30Chess is like war on a board

(Bobby Fischer)

31Chess is played with the mind and not with the hands!

(Renaud and Kahn)

32Chess is mental torture

(Garry Kasparov)

33

Many have become Chess Masters,

no one has become the Master of Chess

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

34

The most important feature of the Chess position is the activity of the

pieces. This is absolutely fundamental in all phases of the game:

Opening, Middlegame and especially Endgame. The primary

constraint on a pieces activity is the Pawn structure

(Michael Stean)

35

You have to have the fighting spirit. You have

to force moves and take chances

(Bobby Fischer)

36

Could we look into the head of a Chess player,

we should see there a whole world of feelings,

images, ideas, emotion and passion

(Alfred Binet)

37Openings teach you openings. Endgames teach you chess!

(Stephan Gerzadowicz)

38My style is somewhere between that of Tal and Petrosian

(Reshevsky)

39

Play the opening like a book, the middle game like

a magician, and the endgame like a machine

(Spielmann)

40

Thats what Chess is all about. One day you give your

opponent a lesson, the next day he gives you one

(Bobby Fischer)

41Some part of a mistake is always correct


42Methodical thinking is of more use in Chess than inspiration

(C. J. S. Purdy)

43When in doubt... play Chess!

(Tevis)

44

Who is your opponent tonight,

tonight I am playing against the Black pieces

(Akiba Rubinstein)

45I like the moment when I break a mans ego

(Bobby Fischer)

46Excellence at Chess is one mark of a scheming mind

(Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)


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47A bad day of Chess is better than any good day at work

(Anonymous)

48Chess is the art of analysis

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

49The mistakes are there, waiting to be made


50There are tough players and nice guys, and Im a tough player

(Bobby Fischer)

51

After blacks reply to 1.e4 with 1..e5, leaves him

always trying to get into the game

(Howard Staunton)

52A player surprised is half beaten

(Proverb)

53

A passed Pawn increases in strength as the number

of pieces on the board diminishes

(Capablanca)

54The essence of Chess is thinking about what Chess is

(David Bronstein)

55I am the best player in the world and I am here to prove it

(Bobby Fischer)

56

Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of

character can ripen more fully than in life

(Edward Morgan Foster)

57

Half the variations which are calculated in a tournament game

turn out to be completely superfluous. Unfortunately, no oneknows in advance which half

(Jan Tinman)

58Chess is as much a mystery as women

(Purdy)

59Good positions dont win games, good moves do

(Gerald Abrahams)

60

If I win a tournament, I win it by myself.

I do the playing. Nobody helps me

(Bobby Fischer)

61What would Chess be without silly mistakes?

(Kurt Richter)

62Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

63Chess was Capablancas mother tongue

(Reti)

64

Alekhine is a poet who creates a work of art out of something

that would hardly inspire another man to

send home a picture post card(Max Euwe)

65Dont even mention losing to me. I cant stand to think of it

(Bobby Fischer)


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66

During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a

combination of a beast of prey and a monk

(Alexander Alekhine)

67No one ever won a game by resigning

(Saviely Tartakower)

68The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary

(Aaron Nimzovich)

69

When the Chess game is over, the Pawn and

the King go back to the same box

(Irish saying)

70

A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will

is required to become a great Chess player

(Bobby Fischer)

71Every Chess master was once a beginner

(Chernev)

72One doesnt have to play well, its

enough to play better than your opponent

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

73Chess is above all, a fight!

(Emanuel Lasker)

74Discovered check is the dive bomber of the Chessboard

(Reuben Fine)

75

I know people who have all the will in the world,

but still cant play good Chess

(Bobby Fischer)

76

A Chess game is a dialogue, a conversation between a player and his

opponent. Each move by the opponent may contain threats or be a

blunder, but a player cannot defend against threats or take

advantage of blunders if he does not first ask himself:

What is my opponent planning after each move?

(Bruce A. Moon)

77The hardest game to win is a won game

(Emanuel Lasker)

78The most powerful weapon in Chess is to have the next move

(David Bronstein)

79He who fears an isolated Queens Pawn should give up Chess

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

80Different people feel differently about resigning

(Bobby Fischer)

81Chess is not like life... it has rules!

(Mark Pasternak)

82Why must I lose to this idiot?

(Aron Nimzovich)

83Its always better to sacrifice your opponents men



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84To avoid losing a piece, many a person has lost the game


85All that matters on the Chessboard is good moves

(Bobby Fischer)

86Help your pieces so they can help you

(Paul Morphy)

87In a gambit you give up a Pawn for the sake of getting a lost game

(Samuel Standige Boden)

88It is not enough to be a good player... you must also play well

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

89A sacrifice is best refuted by accepting it

(Wilhelm Steinitz)

90Tactics flow from a superior position

(Bobby Fischer)

91Later, I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhapsbecause I realized a very simple truth: not only

was I worried, but also my opponent

(Mikhail Tal)

92Chess is life

(Bobby Fischer)

93Chess is a beautiful mistress

(Bent Larsen)

94Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine

(Mikhail Tal)

95Best by test: 1. e4

(Bobby Fischer)

96A bad plan is better than none at all

(Frank Marshall)

97

Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist

the sight, although some players make use of them as if

they thought they conferred sight


98

There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine

(Mikhail Tal)

99Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all

(Bobby Fischer)

100

My opponents make good moves too. Sometimes

I dont take these things into consideration

(Bobby Fischer)

101

The combination player thinks forward; he starts from

the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind

(Emanuel Lasker)

102

A Chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope

you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an

advantage, and the third... when you know youre going to lose!



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103Chess demands total concentration

(Bobby Fischer)

104Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make people happy

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

105All my games are real

(Bobby Fischer)

106Chess is everything: art, science and sport

(Anatoly Karpov)

107Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

108Not all artists are Chess players, but all Chess players are artists

(Marcel Duchamp)

109Chess is imagination

(David Bronstein)

110 Im not afraid of Spassky. The world knows Im the bestYou dont need a match to prove it

(Bobby Fischer)

111

If cunning alone were needed to excel, women

would be the best Chess players

(Albin)

112

Chess is thirty to forty percent psychology. You dont have this

when you play a computer. I cant confuse it

(Judith Polgar)

113

On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long

(Emanuel Lasker)

114Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponents mind

(Bobby Fischer)

115

The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key.

Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient

(Aaron Nimzovich)

116

Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain

so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer

(Albert Einstein)

117Human affairs are like a Chess game: only those who do not

take it seriously can be called good players

(Hung Tzu Cheng)

118The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made


119

Via the squares on the chessboard, the Indians explain the movement of

time and the age, the higher influences which control the world and

the ties which link Chess with the human soul

(Al-Masudi)

120 It is no time to be playing Chess when the house is on fire(Italian Proverb)


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121

You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to

pick up the piece and move it. But what Chess teaches you is that you

must sit there calmly and think about whether its really a good idea

and whether there are other better ideas

(Stanley Kubrick)

122

Daring ideas are like Chess men moved forward. They

may be beaten, but they may start a winning game

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

123

Of all my Russian books, the defense contains and diffuses the

greatest warmth which may seem odd seeing how

supremely abstract Chess is supposed to be

(Vladimir Nabokov)

124

For surely of all the drugs in the world, Chess must be

the most permanently pleasurable

(Assiac)

125

A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes

the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them

not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course(Siegbert Tarrasch)

126

Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that

characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness,

harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity

(Vladimir Nabokov)

127

Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the

world Chess Championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility

(Richard Dawkings)

128 The boy (then a 12 year old boy named Anatoly Karpov) doesnt have aclue about Chess, and theres no future at all for him in this profession

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

129

As one by one I mowed them down, my superiority

soon became apparent

(Jose Capablanca)

130

Though most people love to look at the games of the great attacking

masters, some of the most successful players in history have been the

quiet positional players. They slowly grind you down by taking away your

space, tying up your pieces, and leaving you with virtually nothing to do!

(Yasser Seirawan)

131Chess is ruthless: youve got to be prepared to kill people

(Nigel Short)

132

There must have been a time when men were demigods,

or they could not have invented Chess

(Gustav Schenk)

133Chess is really ninety nine percent calculation

(Soltis)

134Chess is the gymnasium of the mind

(Blaise Pascal)

135

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very

valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by

it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess


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(Benjamin Franklin)

136Winning isnt everything... but losing is nothing

(Mednis)

137Only sissies Castle

(Rob Sillars)

138

Look at Garry Kasparov. After he loses, invariably he wins the

next game. He just kills the next guy. Thats something

that we have to learn to be able to do

(Maurice Ashley)

139There just isnt enough televised Chess

(David Letterman)

140

Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently.

Be the Chess player, not the Chess piece

(Ralph Charell)

141

Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent

has a freer position. If you do have a center, then youreally have something to worry about!

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

142

Any material change in a position must come about by mate,

a capture, or a Pawn promotion

(Purdy)

143

We dont really know how the game was invented, though there are

suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, well let you know

(Bruce Pandolfini)

144

The battle for the ultimate truth will never be won.

And thats why Chess is so fascinating(Hans Kmoch)

145Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted

(Vladimir Putin)

146

I am still a victim of Chess. It has all the beauty of art and much

more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much

purer than art in its social position

(Marcel Duchamp)

147Blessed be the memory of him who gave the world this immortal game

(A. G. Gardiner)

148

In the perfect Chess combination as in a first-rate short story, the

whole plot and counter-plot should lead up to a striking finale,

the interest not being allayed until the very last moment

(Yates and Winter)

149Castle early and often

(Rob Sillars)

150

I believe that Chess possesses a magic that is also a help in advanced

age. A rheumatic knee is forgotten during a game of Chess and

other events can seem quite unimportant in comparison

with a catastrophe on the chessboard(Vlastimil Hort)


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151

Chess is a more highly symbolic game, but the aggressions are

therefore even more frankly represented in the play. It probably

began as a war game; that is, the representation of a miniature

battle between the forces of two kingdoms

(Karl Meninger)

152

No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only

differ in the extent of their madness

(Viktor Korchnoi)

153Chess is 99 percent tactics

(Teichmann)

154Id rather have a Pawn than a finger

(Reuben Fine)

155

Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing

Chess positions accurately

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

156

If your opponent cannot do anything active, then dont rush the position;

instead you should let him sit there, suffer, and beg you for a draw(Jeremy Silman)

157

The Chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and

these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard,

express their beauty abstractly, like a poem

(Marcel Duchamp)

158

Examine moves that smite! A good eye for smites is far more

important than a knowledge of strategical principles

(Purdy)

159Chess is like life

(Boris Spassky)

160

If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out

why he thinks hes worse off

(Nigel Short)

161

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when

you see something that looks good and it trains you to think

objectively when youre in trouble

(Stanley Kubrick)

162Let the perfectionist play postal

(Yasser Seirawan)

163

If Chess is a science, its a most inexact one. If Chess is an art, it is too

exacting to be seen as one. If Chess is a sport, its too esoteric. If Chess

is a game, its too demanding to be just a game. If Chess is a mistress,

shes a demanding one. If Chess is a passion, its a rewarding

one. If Chess is life, its a sad one

(Unknown)

164

Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are

doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time

(George Bernard Shaw)

165You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5,

and the path leading out is only wide enough for one

(Mikhail Tal)


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166

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of Chess, when my

opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved

(Soren Kierkegaard)

167

When your house is on fire, you cant be bothered with the neighbors.

Or, as we say in Chess, if your King is under attack you dont worry

about losing a Pawn on the Queens side

(Gary Kasparov)

168

Man is a frivolous, a specious creature, and like a Chess player, cares

more for the process of attaining his goal than for the goal itself

(Dostoyevsky)

169

When asked, -How is that you pick better moves than your opponents?,

I responded: Im very glad you asked me that, because, as it happens,

there is a very simple answer. I think up my own moves, and I

make my opponent think up his

(Alexander Alekhine)

170Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

171

What is the object of playing a gambit opening?... To acquire a

reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

172

Pawns: they are the soul of this game, they alone

form the attack and defense

(Philidor)

173Chess is above all, a fight!

(Emanuel Lasker)

174In Chess, at least, the brave inherit the earth

(Edmar Mednis)

175

There are two classes of men; those who are content to yield to

circumstances and who play whist; those who aim to control

circumstances, and who play Chess

(Mortimer Collins)

176

The tactician must know what to do whenever something needs doing;

the strategist must know what to do when nothing needs doing


177

When you are lonely, when you feel yourself an alien in the world, play

Chess. This will raise your spirits and be your counselor in war(Aristotle)

178All Chess players should have a hobby


179

I played Chess with him and would have beaten him sometimes only he

always took back his last move, and ran the game out differently

(Mark Twain)

180

The tactician knows what to do when there is something to do; whereas

the strategian knows what to do when there is nothing to do

(Gerald Abrahams)

181In Chess, just as in life, todays bliss may be tomorrows poison

(Assaic)


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182

You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a

game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games

before becoming a good player


183The way he plays Chess demonstrates a mans whole nature

(Stanley Ellin)

184 You can only get good at Chess if you love the game(Bobby Fischer)

185A man that will take back a move at Chess will pick a pocket

(Richard Fenton)

186

Whoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate

to ones opponent will never become a good Chess player

(Euwe)

187In blitz, the Knight is stronger than the Bishop

(Vlastimil Hort)

188 Chess is a fighting game which is purely intellectual and includes chance(Richard Reti)

189Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe

(Hindu proverb)

190Pawn endings are to Chess what putting is to golf

(Cecil Purdy)

191Chess opens and enriches your mind

(Saudin Robovic)

192

The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard

(Aaron Nimzovich)

193

For me, Chess is life and every game is like a new life. Every

Chess player gets to live many lives in one lifetime

(Eduard Gufeld)

194Chess is a terrific way for kids to build self image and self esteem

(Saudin Robovic)

195If a ruler does not understand Chess, how can he rule over a kingdom?

(King Khusros II)

196

Chess is a cold bath for the mind

(Sir John Simon)

197

Becoming successful at Chess allows you to discover your

own personality. Thats what I want for the kids I teach

(Saudin Robovic)

198

Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is

capable of having an evil thought during the game

(Wilhelm Steinitz)

199You are for me the Queen on d8 and I am the Pawn on d7!!

(GM Eduard Gufeld)

200

By playing at Chess then, we may learn:

First: Foresight... Second: Circumspection... Third: Caution...

And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by

present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping


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for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources

(Benjamin Franklin)

201I prefer to lose a really good game than to win a bad one

(David Levy)

202

Capture of the adverse King is the ultimate

but not the first object of the game

(William Steinitz)

203

When I have White, I win because I am white;

When I have Black, I win because I am Bogolyubov

(Bogolyubov)

204Every Pawn is a potential Queen

(James Mason)

205

Chess is in its essence a game, in its form an art,

and in its execution a science

(Baron Tassilo)

206 No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King(Koblentz)

207

In life, as in Chess, ones own Pawns block ones way. A mans

very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help

him to win, more often checkmate him

(Charles Buxton)

208

Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is

declining then Chess too will decline

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

209

A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound

but leaves your opponent dazed and confused(Rudolph Spielmann)

210

Chess, like any creative activity, can exist only through

the combined efforts of those who have creative talent, and

those who have the ability to organize their creative work

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

211One bad move nullifies forty good ones

(Horowitz)

212

Place the contents of the Chess box in a hat, shake them up

vigorously, pour them on the board from a height of twofeet, and you get the style of Steinitz

(H. E. Bird)

213

I have never in my life played the French Defence,

which is the dullest of all openings

(Wilhelm Steinitz)

214Pawns are born free, yet they are everywhere in chains

(Rick Kennedy)

215

It is not a move, even the best move

that you must seek, but a realizable plan

(Eugene Znosko-Borovsky)

216Those who say they understand Chess, understand nothing

(Robert Hubner)


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217

Good offense and good defense both

begin with good development

(Bruce A. Moon)

218

Botvinnik tried to take the mystery out of Chess, always relating

it to situations in ordinary life. He used to call Chess a typical

inexact problem similar to those which people are always

having to solve in everyday life

(Garry Kasparov)

219A good player is always lucky


220

The sign of a great Master is his ability to win

a won game quickly and painlessly

(Irving Chernev)

221

One of these modest little moves may be more embarrassing

to your opponent than the biggest threat

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

222 Live, lose, and learn, by observing your opponent how to win(Amber Steenbock)

223The older I grow, the more I value Pawns

(Keres)

224Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the world of Chess

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

225

The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance

but in the thought behind it

(Aaron Nimzovich)

226My God, Bobby Fischer plays so simply

(Alexei Suetin)

227You need not play well - just help your opponent to play badly

(Genrikh Chepukaitis)

228It is difficult to play against Einsteins theory --on his first loss to Fischer

(Mikhail Tal)

229The only thing Chess players have in common is Chess

(Lodewijk Prins)

230Bobby just drops the pieces and they fall on the right squares

(Miguel Najdorf)

231

We must make sure that Chess will not be like a dead language,

very interesting, but for a very small group

(Sytze Faber)

232

The passion for playing Chess is one of the

most unaccountable in the world

(H.G. Wells)

233

Chess is so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to

induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money

(Benjamin Franklin)

234

The enormous mental resilience, without which no Chess player

can exist, was so much taken up by Chess that he could

never free his mind of this game


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(Albert Einstein)

235Nowadays, when youre not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it

(Anand Viswanathan)

236

Do you realize Fischer almost never has any bad pieces? He exchanges

them, and the bad pieces remain with his opponents

(Yuri Balashov)

237It is always better to sacrifice your opponents men


238In Chess, as it is played by masters, chance is practically eliminated

(Emanuel Lasker)

239

You know youre going to lose. Even when I was ahead I knew I

was going to lose --on playing against Fischer

(Andrew Soltis)

240

I wont play with you anymore. You have insulted my friend

--when an opponent cursed himself for a blunder

(Miguel Najdorf)

241

You know, comrade Pachman, I dont enjoy being a Minister,

I would rather play Chess like you

(Che Guevara)

242

It began to feel as though you were playing against Chess itself

--on playing against Robert Fischer

(Walter Shipman)

243Checkers is for tramps

(Paul Morphy)

244When you play Bobby, it is not a question if you win or lose.

It is a question if you survive

(Boris Spassky)

245When you absolutely dont know what to do anymore, it is time to panic

(John van der Wiel)

246We like to think

(Gary Kasparov)

247Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few

(Georg Kieninger)

248In complicated positions, Bobby Fischer

hardly had to be afraid of anybody

(Paul Keres)

249

It was clear to me that the vulnerable point of the American

Grandmaster (Bobby Fischer) was in double-edged, hanging, irrational

positions, where he often failed to find a win even in a won position

(Efim Geller)

250

I love all positions. Give me a difficult positional game, I will play it.

But totally won positions, I cannot stand them

(Hein Donner)

251

In Fischers hands, a slight theoretical advantage

is as good a being a Queen ahead

(Isaac Kashdan)


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252I still hope to kill Fischer

(Boris Spassky)

253Is Bobby Fischer quite sane?

(Salo Flohr)

254Robert Fischer is a law unto himself

(Larry Evans)

255Fischer is under obligation to nobody

(Joseph Platz)

256

Bobby Fischers current state of mind is indeed a tragedy. One of the

worlds greatest Chess players - the pride and sorrow of American Chess

(Frank Brady)

257Fischer is an American Chess tragedy on par with Morphy and Pillsbury

(Mig Greengard)

258

Nonsense was the last thing Fischer was interested in,

as far as Chess was concerned

(Elie Agur)

259

Fischer is the strongest player in the world. In fact,

the strongest player who ever lived

(Larry Evans)

260If you arent afraid of Spassky, then I have removed the element of money

(Jim Slater)

261I guess a certain amount of temperament is expected of Chess geniuses

(Ron Gross)

262

Fischer sacrificed virtually everything most of us weakies (to use his term)

value, respect, and cherish, for the sake of an artful, often beautiful boardgame, for the ambivalent privilege of being its greatest master

(Paul Kollar)

263

Fischer Chess play was always razor-sharp,

rational and brilliant. One of the best ever

(Dave Regis)

264Fischer wanted to give the Russians a taste of their own medicine

(Larry Evans)

265

With or without the title, Bobby Fischer was

unquestionably the greatest player of his time

(Burt Hochberg)

266

Fischer is completely natural. He plays no roles.

Hes like a child. Very, very simple

(Zita Rajcsanyi)

267Spassky will not be psyched out by Fischer

(Mike Goodall)

268

Already at 15 years of age he was a Grandmaster, a record at

that time, and his battle to reach the top was the background

for all the major Chess events of the 1960

(Tim Harding)

269

Fischer, who may or may not be mad as a hatter,

has every right to be horrified

(Jeremy Silman)


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270

When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our

game, he replied: Well, you laughed when I wrote it down!

(Mikhail Tal)

271I look one move ahead... the best!

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

272Fischer prefers to enter Chess history alone

(Miguel Najdorf)

273

Bobby is the most misunderstood, misquoted celebrity

walking the face of this earth

(Yasser Seirawan)

274

When you dont know what to play, wait for an idea to come into your

opponents mind. You may be sure that idea will be wrong

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

275There is no remorse like the remorse of Chess

(H. G. Wells)

276By this measure (on the gap between Fischer & his contemporaries),

I consider him the greatest world champion

(Garry Kasparov)

277

By the beauty of his games, the clarity of his play, and the brilliance

of his ideas, Fischer made himself an artist of the same

stature as Brahms, Rembrandt, and Shakespeare

(David Levy)

278

Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent

has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you

really have something to worry about!

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

279

Many Chess players were surprised when after the game, Fischer quietly

explained: I had already analyzed this possibility in a position

which I thought was not possible to foresee from the opening

(Mikhail Tal)

280

Suddenly it was obvious to me in my analysis I had missed what

Fischer had found with the greatest of ease at the board

(Mikhail Botvinnik)

281The King is a fighting piece. Use it!

(Wilhelm Steinitz)

282

A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes

the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them

not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

283Bobby Fischer is the greatest Chess genius of all time!

(Alexander Kotov)

284

The laws of Chess do not permit a free choice:

you have to move whether you like it or not

(Emanuel Lasker)

285First-class players lose to second-class players becausesecond-class players sometimes play a first-class game

(Siegbert Tarrasch)


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286

Bobby is the finest Chess player this country ever produced. His memory

for the moves, his brilliance in dreaming up combinations,

and his fierce determination to win are uncanny

(John Collins)

287

After a bad opening, there is hope for the middle game. After a bad

middle game, there is hope for the endgame. But once you are

in the endgame, the moment of truth has arrived

(Edmar Mednis)

288

Weak points or holes in the opponents position must

be occupied by pieces not Pawns

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

289

There is only one thing Fischer does in Chess

without pleasure: to lose!

(Boris Spassky)

290Bobby Fischer is the greatest Chess player who has ever lived

(Ken Smith)

291Up to this point White has been following well-known analysis. But

now he makes a fatal error: he begins to use his own head

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

292

Fischer was a master of clarity and a king of artful positioning. His

opponents would see where he was going but were powerless to stop him

(Bruce Pandolfini)

293

No other master has such a terrific will to win. At the board he radiates

danger, and even the strongest opponents tend to freeze, like rabbits when

they smell a panther. Even his weaknesses are dangerous. As white, his

opening game is predictable - you can make plans against it - but so strong

that your plans almost never work. In the middle game his precision andinvention are fabulous, and in the end game you simply cannot beat him

(Anonymous German Expert)

294

White lost because he failed to remember the right

continuation and had to think up the moves himself

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

295

Not only will I predict his triumph over Botvinnik, but Ill go further and say

that hell probably be the greatest Chess player that ever lived

(John Collins)

296

I consider Fischer to be one of the greatest opening experts ever

(Keith Hayward)

297

I like to say that Bobby Fischer was the greatest player ever. But

what made Fischer a genius was his ability to blend an American

freshness and pragmatism with Russian ideas about strategy

(Bruce Pandolfini)

298

At this time Fischer is simply a level above all

the best Chessplayers in the world

(John Jacobs)

299

I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who

has no knowledge of Chess

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

300Theres never before been a Chess player with such a thorough knowledge

of the intricacies of the game and such an absolutely indomitable will


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to win. I think Bobby is the greatest player that ever lived

(Lisa Lane)

301He who takes the Queens Knights Pawn will sleep in the streets

(Anonymous)

302

I had a toothache during the first game. In the second game I had a

headache. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism. In the

fourth game, I wasnt feeling well. And in the fifth game? Well,must one have to win every game?

(Siegbert Tarrasch)

303The stomach is an essential part of the Chess master

(Bent Larsen)

304

We must make sure that Chess will not be like a dead language, very

interesting, but for a very small group

(Sytze Faber)

305

Im not a materialistic person, in that, I dont suffer the lack or loss of money.

The absence of worldly goods I dont look back on. For Chess is a way I

can be as materialistic as I want without having to sell my soul (Jamie Walter Adams)

306

These are not pieces, they are men! For any man to walk into the line of fire

will be one less man in your army to fight for you. Value every troop and use

him wisely, throw him not to the dogs as he is there to serve his King

(Jamie Walter Adams)

307Chess isnt a game of speed, it is a game of speech through actions

(Matthew Selman)

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