Favorite Chess Quotes

Fpawn Top 10

What Is Chess? Who Is The Chess Player?

11. Chess is Life. [11th World Champion Bobby Fischer]
12. Chess is everything: Art, Science, and Sport. [12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov]
13. Chess is the Art of Analysis. [6th World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik]
14. Chess is a matter of daily training. [14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik]
15. Chess demands total concentration. [11th World Champion Bobby Fischer]
16. The hardest game to Win is a Won game. [2nd World Champion Emanuel Lasker]
17. Not all Artists may be Chess players, but all Chess players are Artists. [Marcel Duchamp]
18. During a Chess competition, the Master should be a combination of a Beast of Prey and a Monk. [4th World Champion Alexander Alekhine]
19. Play the opening like a Book, the middle game like a Magician, and the endgame like a Machine. [Rudolf Spielmann]
20. If one thinks of Strategy as a block of marble, then Tactics are the chisel with which a Master operates, in creating works of Chess Art. [9th World Champion Tigran Petrosian]

Theory and Advice

21. All that matters on the Chess board is good moves. [11th World Champion Bobby Fischer]
22. The King is a fighting Piece. Use it! [1st World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz]
23. Live by the sword and die by the sword. Sometimes I wonder just how many of these games I can play before I die of a heart attack. [GM Hikaru Nakamura]
24. The power of hanging Pawns is based precisely in their Mobility, in their Ability to create acute situations instantly. [10th World Champion Boris Spassky]
25. Weak points or holes in the Opponent's position must be occupied by Pieces not Pawns. [Siegbert Tarrasch]
26. The main Objective of any operation in an open file is the eventual Occupation of the seventh or eighth Rank. [Aaron Nimzovich]
27. If you don't know what to do, find your worst Piece and look for a better Square. [Gerald Schwarz]
28. In order to improve your game, you must study the Endgame before everything else. [3rd World Champion José Raúl Capablanca]
29. I claim that nothing else is so effective in encouraging the growth of Chess strength as such Independent Analysis, both of the games of the great players and your own. [6th World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik]
30. There came a time when I realized that the ability to Defend was - for a good Chess player - insufficient. You can't be dependent upon your Opponent's Will, but must try to impose Your Will on him. [GM Viktor Korchnoi]
31. When you have a Winning position, K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). [Michael Aigner]
32. If your Opponent offers you a Draw, try to work out why he thinks he's worse off. [GM Nigel Short]
33. Agreeing to draws in the middlegame, equal or otherwise, deprives you of the opportunity to practice playing endgames, and the endgame is probably where you need the most practice. [GM Pal Benko]
34. Contrary to many young Colleagues, I do believe that it makes sense to study the Classics. [16th World Champion Magnus Carlsen]

About Chess

34. Pawns are the Soul of Chess. [François André Philidor]
35. Without Error there can be no Brilliancy. [2nd World Champion Emanuel Lasker]
36. A good Player is always Lucky. [3rd World Champion José Raúl Capablanca]
37. There are two types of Sacrifices: correct ones, and Mine. [8th World Champion Mikhail Tal]
38. Ultimately, what separates a Winner from a Loser at the Grandmaster level is the Willingness to do the Unthinkable. [13th World Champion Garry Kasparov]
39. Nowadays, when you're not a Grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it (becoming World Champion). [15th World Champion Viswanathan Anand]
40. Strategy requires Thought; Tactics require Observation. [5th World Champion Max Euwe]
41. The best indicator of a Chess Player's form is his ability to sense the Climax of the game. [10th World Champion Boris Spassky]
42. By playing at Chess then, we may learn… First: Foresight. Second: Circumspection. Third: Caution. [Benjamin Franklin]
43. Chess teaches you a lot. Apart from the most obvious – spatial imagination and the ability to concentrate for reasonably long periods of time – if we’re talking about kids I think that the ability to handle disappointment and loss is important for character-forming. I think it makes you a better, more rounded person in general. [GM Peter Svidler]
44. First-class Players lose to Second-class Players because Second-class Players sometimes play a First-class game. [Siegbert Tarrasch]
45. Computers have changed the World of Chess. [14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik]
46. For every door the Computers have closed they have opened a new one. [15th World Champion Viswanathan Anand]

Chess Psychology

46. Who is your Opponent tonight? I am playing against the Black Pieces. [GM Akiba Rubinstein]
47. In my games I sometimes found a Combination intuitively, simply by feeling that it must be there. [8th World Champion Mikhail Tal]
48. You need not always play Well - just help your Opponent to play Badly. [Genrikh "SmartChip" Chepukaitis]
49. In Chess, as in Life, a Man is his own most dangerous Opponent. [7th World Champion Vasily Smyslov]
50. Confidence is very important – even pretending to be Confident. If you make a Mistake but do not let your Opponent see what you are thinking then he may overlook the Mistake. [15th World Champion Viswanathan Anand]
51. A Young Player, specifically because he is so inexperienced, naturally Fears an Established Master. Only the Ambitious Player becomes a solid Master, and that by breaking that Fear. How? By being prepared to play out every game. He must gamble on Losing; there is no other way of Winning. We all make Mistakes. A Determined Player makes fewer, and those he does make are more often overlooked simply because of the Pressure and Tension he exerts on his Rival! [GM William Lombardy]
52. Self-confidence is very important. If you don’t think you can win, you will take cowardly decisions in the crucial moments, out of sheer respect for your opponent. ... It is better to overestimate your prospects than underestimate them. [16th World Champion Magnus Carlsen]
53. Look at Garry Kasparov. After he Loses, invariably he Wins the next game. He just kills the next guy. [GM Maurice Ashley]
54. No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their Madness. [GM Viktor Korchnoi]
55. Your body has to be in top condition. Your Chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind. [11th World Champion Bobby Fischer]

Links

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