Chess Quotes - Page 6

• In chess, as in life, a man is his own most dangerous opponent.

  Vasily Smyslov

  Men, Psychology, Opponents

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• During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk

  Alexander Alekhine

  Competition, Beast, Monk

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• Chess is an infinitely complex game, which one can play in infinitely numerous and varied ways.

  Vladimir Kramnik

  Games, Play, Way

  "Art, Chess, Beauty and Depth". Interview with Ugo Dossi, en.chessbase.com. December 21, 2005.

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• Chess for me is not a game, but an art. Yes, and I take upon myself all those responsibilities which an art imposes on its adherents.

  Alexander Alekhine

  Art, Responsibility, Games

  "Poetics". Book by Daniel James Brooks (Book 1, p. 72), 2013.

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• The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Keys, Police, Criminals

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• The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us.

  Thomas Huxley

  Life, Player, Games

  'Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews' (1870) 'A Liberal Education'

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• 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.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Games, Chess Game, Mind

  François Danican Philidor, Sir William Jones, Benjamin Franklin (1824). “An Easy Introduction to the Game of Chess: Containing One Hundred Examples of Games and a Great Variety of Critical Situations and Conclusions ; Including the Whole of Philidor's Analysis with Copious Selections from Stamma, the Calabrois, &c”, p.237

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• Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders.

  Savielly Tartakower

  Fairy Tale, Tales, Blunders

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• Chess is a test of wills.

  Paul Keres

  Tests

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• As a rule, the more mistakes there are in a game, the more memorable it remains, because you have suffered and worried over each mistake at the board.

  Viktor Korchnoi

  Mistake, Memorable, Games

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• Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game.

  Siegbert Tarrasch

  Games, Chess Game, Middle

  "Cunning Exiles : Studies of Modern Prose Writers". Book by Don Anderson, Stephen Thomas Knight (p. 41), 1974.

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• If a chess statistician were to try and satisfy his curiousity over which stage of the game proved decisive in the majority of cases, he would certainly come to the conclusion that it is the middlegame that provides the most decisive stage.

  Alexander Kotov

  Games, Trying, Majority

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• Only a good bishop can be sacrificed, a bad bishop can only be lost.

  Yuri Razuvaev

  Bishops, Lost

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• 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 you're in trouble

  Stanley Kubrick

  Learning, Thinking, Looks

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• Don't worry kids, you'll find work. After all, my machine will need strong chess player-programmers. You will be the first.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Strong, Kids, Player

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• Having spent 200 hours on the above, the young player, even if he possesses no special talent for chess, is likely to be among those two or three thousand chessplayers [who play on a par with a master]. There are, however, a quarter of a million chessplayers who annually spend no fewer than 200 hours on chess without making any progress. Without going into any further calculations, I can assert with a high degree of certainty that nowadays we achieve only a fraction of what we are capable of achieving.

  Emanuel Lasker

  Player, Two, Special

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  People who want to improve should take their defeats as lessons, and endeavor to learn what to avoid in the future. You must also have the courage of your convictions. If you think your move is good, make it.

  Jose Raul Capablanca

  Moving, Learning, Thinking

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• 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

  Brain, Mind, Suffering

  "The Immortal Game: A History of Chess". Book by David Shenk, www.theguardian.com. 2006.

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• The tactician must know what to do whenever something needs doing; the strategist must know what to do when nothing needs doing

  Savielly Tartakower

  Needs, Strategy, Knows

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• If you don't know what to do, find your worst Piece and look for a better Square.

  Gerard Schwarz

  Squares, Looks, Pieces

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• But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt. He [Capablanca] wanted to change the rules [of chess] already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It's a terrible game now. Very uncreative.

  Bobby Fischer

  Games, Mind, Twenties

  Radio Interview, www.geocities.jp. October 16, 2006.

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• Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Mastery, Analysis, Analyzing

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• Life is not always like chess. Just because you have the king surrounded, don't think he is not capable of hurting you.

  Ron Livingston

  Hurt, Kings, Thinking

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I don't know what I am going to play, so how can he know what I am going to play!

  Arthur Bisguier

  Play, Knows

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• Human affairs are like a chess-game: only those who do not take it seriously can be called good players. Life is like an earthen pot: only when it is shattered, does it manifest its emptiness.

  Seneca the Younger

  Player, Games, Chess Game

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