Chess Quotes - Page 39

• My fascination for studies proved highly beneficial, it assisted the development of my aesthetic understanding of chess, and improved my endgame play.

  Vasily Smyslov

  Play, Understanding, Fascination

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• Some studies make such a deep impression on you that they stay etched in your memory forever.

  Jan Timman

  Memories, Forever, Study

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• 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.

  Magnus Carlsen

  Past, Player, Games

  "The Top Chess Player In The World Impressed The Heck Out Of Everyone At This NYC Exhibition". Interview with Gus Lubin, www.businessinsider.com. September 4, 2012.

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• Many men, many styles; what is chess style but the intangible expression of the will to win.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Winning, Men, Expression

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• The best chess masters of every epoch have been closely linked with the values of the society in which they lived and worked. All the changes of a cultural, political, and psychological background are reflected in the style and ideas of their play.

  Garry Kasparov

  Play, Ideas, Political

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• I go over many games collections and pick up something from the style of each player.

  Mikhail Tal

  Player, Games, Style

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• I believe that the best style is a universal one, tactical and positional at the same time.

  Susan Polgar

  Believe, Style, Universal

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• But you see when I play a game of Bobby, there is no style. Bobby played perfectly. And perfection has no style.

  Miguel Najdorf

  Games, Play, Perfection

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• If critics and competitors can't match your results, they will often denigrate the way you achieve them. Fast, intuitive types are called lazy. Dedicated burners of the midnight oil are called obsessed. And while it's obviously not a bad idea to hear and consider the opinions of others, you should be suspicious when these criticisms emerge right on the heels of success.

  Garry Kasparov

  Success, Oil, Ideas

  Garry Kasparov (2010). “How Life Imitates Chess: Making the Right Moves, from the Board to the Boardroom”, p.43, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• When I start to play a game I try to forget about previous games and try to concentrate on this game. This game is now the most important to me. But of course I am not a computer and you cannot simply press a button, delete, and everything you want to forget disappears automatically. But if you want to play well, it's important to concentrate on the now.

  Vassily Ivanchuk

  Success, Games, Play

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• Modern Chess is too much concerned with things like Pawn structure. Forget it, Checkmate ends the game

  Nigel Short

  Games, Chess Game, Too Much

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• 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

  Book, Defense, May

  Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1990). “The Defense: A Novel”, Vintage

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• Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Art, Demand, Originality

  Vladimir Nabokov (2015). “Letters to V??ra”, p.531, Knopf

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• Chess is a cold bath for the mind

  John Simon

  Mind, Baths, Cold

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• 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

  Children, Block, Book

  Charles Buxton, John Llewelyn Davies (1873). “Notes of Thought”, p.277

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• The man of system is apt to be very wise in his own conceit. In the great chess board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it

  Adam Smith

  Wise, Men, Might

  Adam Smith (1817). “The Theory of Moral Sentiments: Or, An Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves : to which is Added, A Dissertation on the Origin of Languages”, p.379

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• In life, as in chess, forethought wins.

  Charles Buxton

  Life, Winning, Focus

  Charles Buxton, John Llewelyn Davies (1883). “Notes of Thought”

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• I play way too much blitz chess. It rots the brain just as surely as alcohol.

  Nigel Short

  Play, Alcohol, Brain

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• I cannot claim to thoroughly enjoy coaching, because it is very hard work if you are even moderately conscientious. Nevertheless it does provide a degree of satisfaction - not to mention a steady income, which is why I do it occasionally.

  Nigel Short

  Hard Work, Coaching, Degrees

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• If chess is a vast jungle, computers are the chainsaws in a giant environmentally insensitive logging company.

  Nigel Short

  Giants, Logging, Computer

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• I know that with perfect play, God versus God, Fritz versus Fritz, chess is a draw.

  Nigel Short

  Play, Perfect, Draws

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• I am acutely conscious, from vast experience in opens, that guys around, say 2100 or more can definitely play chess and that one often has to work very hard to beat them.

  Nigel Short

  Learning, Play, Guy

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• The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it... He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that...in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.

  Adam Smith

  Wise, Men, Hands

  "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" by Adam Smith, (Section II, Chap. II), 1759.

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• The laws of chess are as beautiful as those governing the universe - and as deadly.

  Katherine Neville

  Beautiful, Law, Governing

  Katherine Neville (2015). “A Calculated Risk: A Novel”, p.91, Open Road Media

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• You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic, clumsy and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess.

  H. G. Wells

  Artist, Wish, Bombs

  H. G. Wells (2013). “Delphi Collected Works of H. G. Wells (Illustrated)”, p.8287, Delphi Classics

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