There wasn't any particular player I modeled my game after. I tried to learn from everyone and create my own style. I studied past players... Truth be told I never had a favorite player. It's just not my nature to go around idolizing people. I just go try to learn.
Many men, many styles; what is chess style but the intangible expression of the will to win.
I see my own style as being a symbiosis of the styles of Alekhine, Tal and Fischer.
Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and in any case, a game without ant errors, or as they say 'flawless game' is colorless.
Haste, the great enemy.
Typically, in the last round of open tournaments the level of play is markedly lower, the number of blunders higher.
Attackers may sometimes regret bad moves, but it is much worse to forever regret an opportunity you allowed to pass you by.
My favourite victory is when it is not even clear where my opponent made a mistake.
When chess masters err, ordinary wood pushers tend to derive a measure of satisfaction, if not actual glee.
Errors have nothing to do with luck; they are caused by time pressure, discomfort or unfamiliarilty with a position, distractions, feelings of intimidation, nervous tension, overambition, excessive caution, and dozens of other psychological factors.
The technical phase can be boring because there is little opportunity for creavivity, for art. Boredom leads to complacency and mistakes.
When everything on the board is clear it can be so difficult to conceal your thoughts from your opponent.
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.
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.
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.
Play the move that forces the win in the simplest way. Leave the brilliancies to Alekhine, Keres and Tal.
As long as my opponent has not yet castled, on each move I seek a pretext for an offensive. Even when I realize that the king is not in danger.
When you defend, try not to worry or become upset. Keep your cool and trust your position - it's all you've got.
Just as it is wrong to work on chess by studying only the first 10-15 moves, so it is wrong to play one and the same opening system, even though it be rich in variations and nuances.
Chess strategy as such today is still in its diapers, despite Tarrasch's statement 'We live today in a beautiful time of progress in all fields'. Not even the slightest attempt has been made to explore and formulate the laws of chess strategy.
However hopeless the situation appears to be there yet always exists the possibility of putting up a stubborn resistance.
American democracy is a chess-game in which pawns imagine themselves to be free individuals with wills of their own: that delusion is one of the rules of the game, without which the game could not continue. I doubt anyone, no matter how sharp and sharp-tongued, could succeed in getting across to high school students how vital an acute mind is for just keeping a grip on one's life and earnings in our mendacious politics and economics. No wonder our school system is devoutly dedicated to demoralizing and blunting such minds.
In chess there can never be a favorite move. I can probably pinpoint in a specific game, there might be a move that was like, "Oh, that was a good move." And maybe certain moves turned the whole game around, but there's not one special move that does that, unless it's checkmate because that's when the game is over.
There is no doubt that the reason for my awful oversight was over-confidence that sapped my sense of danger. So that is where to look for the cause of bad blunders - in the exulting feeling of self-congratulation.
The number of 'unneccessary' errors that have been committed on move 41 are legion.
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