Chess Quotes - Page 27

• Despite the development of chess theory, there is much that remains secret and unexplored in chess.

  Vasily Smyslov

  Secret, Development, Theory

  19 Copy quote

• When men lose against me, they always have a headache ... or things of that kind. I have never beaten a completely healthy man!

  Susan Polgar

  Funny, Women, Humorous

  61 Copy quote

• When you trade, the key concern is not always the value of the pieces being exchanged, but what's left on the board.

  Dan Heisman

  Keys, Boards, Pieces

  35 Copy quote

• It is dangerous to maintain equality at the cost of placing the pieces passively.

  Anatoly Karpov

  Pieces, Cost, Strategy

  23 Copy quote

• It is better to follow out a plan consistently even if it isn't the best one than to play without a plan at all. The worst thing is to wander about aimlessly.

  Alexander Kotov

  Play, Strategy, Wander

  15 Copy quote

• I maintain that in every position that arises, we should deliberately search, among other things, for pieces which have no retreat. If we see one, we automatically look to see if it can be netted.

  Cecil Purdy

  Looks, Pieces, Retreat

  6 Copy quote

• Only play into a variation in which your opponent is strong if you have your own personal novelty ready!

  Edmar Mednis

  Strong, Play, Opponents

  12 Copy quote

• Realize that the social media success equation isn't big moves on the chess board, it's little moves made every day that eventually add up to a major shift.

  Jay Baer

  Moving, Media, Littles

  5 Copy quote

• Chess is the most intimate game in the world. It's like making love. By the time we finish our first slow game, I will know all his thoughts.

  Eloisa James

  Games, Making Love, World

  4 Copy quote

• If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.

  Garry Kasparov

  Success, Brave, Risk

  Garry Kasparov (2010). “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom”, p.96, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• I will not hide the fact that I love to hear the spectators react after a sacrifice of a piece or pawn. I don't think that there is anything bad in such a feeling; no artist or musician is indifferent to the reactions of the public.

  Mikhail Tal

  Sacrifice, Artist, Thinking

  80 Copy quote

• Chess sharpens the mind, stimulates concentration, improves the memory and promotes visualization.

  Samuel Reshevsky

  Memories, Mind, Concentration

  14 Copy quote

• No matter how much theory progresses, how radically styles change, chess play is inconceivable without tactics.

  Samuel Reshevsky

  Play, Style, Progress

  15 Copy quote

• Tartakower once wrote that after planting a Knight in the center you can go to sleep. This is not to be taken literally, of course, but it contains more than a germ of truth.

  Samuel Reshevsky

  Taken, Sleep, Knights

  12 Copy quote

• I would never suggest to anyone that they drop school for chess. First of all even if you can make it in chess, your social skills need to be developed there.

  Viswanathan Anand

  School, Skills, Firsts

  7 Copy quote

• The worst enemy of the strategist is the clock. Time trouble... Reduces us all to pure reflex and reaction, tactical play. Emotion and instinct cloud our strategic vision when there is no time for proper evaluation.

  Garry Kasparov

  Worst Enemy, Play, Clouds

  Garry Kasparov (2010). “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom”, p.30, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

  28 Copy quote

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• When everything on the board is clear it can be so difficult to conceal your thoughts from your opponent.

  David Bronstein

  Boards, Opponents, Strategy

  12 Copy quote

• One charming characteristic of many flank attacks I could mention is that they do not very often lead to simplification: if the attack is parried, there usually are still opportunities left for initiating action in another sector.

  Bent Larsen

  Opportunity, Action, Strategy

  13 Copy quote

• Strategically important points should be overprotected. If the pieces are so engaged, they get their regard in the fact that they will then find themselves well posted in every respect.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Important, Pieces, Facts

  30 Copy quote

• The infallible criterion by which to distinguish the true from the would-be strategist is the degree of originality of his conceptions. It makes little difference whether this originality is carried to excess, as was the case with Steinitz and Nimzowitsch.

  Alexander Alekhine

  Differences, Would Be, Excess

  31 Copy quote

• During a chess tournament a master must envisage himself as a cross between an ascetic monk and a beast of prey.

  Alexander Alekhine

  Beast, Strategy, Monk

  56 Copy quote

• The loss of my childhood was the price for becoming the youngest world champion in history. When you have to fight every day from a young age, your soul can be contaminated. I lost my childhood. I never really had it. Today I have to be careful not to become cruel, because I became a soldier too early.

  Garry Kasparov

  Loss, Fighting, Childhood

  "The Tsar's Opponent" by David Remnick, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2007.

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• One thing with Garry, and I think it is due in a large part to his Soviet training, he'll never quite understand that you have to be able to criticize constructively. When you have someone who is always on your case and it's never good enough no matter how you win a game, it just brings you down, you lose confidence. And as a chess player you have to be confident, you have to believe in yourself.

  Hikaru Nakamura

  Believe, Thinking, Winning

  34 Copy quote

• I can’t count the times I have lagged seemingly hopelessly far behind, and nobody except myself thinks I can win. But I have pulled myself in from desperate [situations]. When you are behind there are two strategies - counter-attack or all men to the defences. I’m good at finding the right balance between those.

  Magnus Carlsen

  Men, Thinking, Winning

  7 Copy quote

• Diabetes is passed that way -- over and down, like a knight in chess.

  Maile Meloy

  Knights, Way, Diabetes

  Maile Meloy (2010). “Both Ways Is the Only Way I Want It”, p.70, Canongate Books

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