Wilhelm Steinitz Quotes

• Chess is intellectual gymnastics.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Gymnastics, Intellectual, Chess

  56 Copy quote

• Unfortunately, many regard the critic as an enemy, instead of seeing him as a guide to the truth.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Truth, Enemy, Chess

  31 Copy quote

• Only the player with the initiative has the right to attack

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Player, Chess, Strategy

  25 Copy quote

• The King is a fighting piece. Use it!

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Kings, Fighting, Chess Pieces

  21 Copy quote

• Chess is not for the faint-hearted; it absorbs a person entirely. To get to the bottom of this game, he has to give himself up into slavery. Chess is difficult, it demands work, serious reflection and zealous research.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Success, Reflection, Games

  30 Copy quote

• The task of the positional player is systematically to accumulate slight advantages and try to convert temporary advantages into permanent ones, otherwise the player with the better position runs the risk of losing it.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Running, Player, Risk

  31 Copy quote

• No great player blundered oftener than I done. I was champion of the world for twenty-eight years because I was twenty years ahead of my time. I played on certain principles, which neither Zukertort nor anyone else of his time understood. The players of today, such as Lasker, Tarrasch, Pillsbury, Schlechter and others have adopted my principles, and as is only natural, they have improved upon what I began, and that is the whole secret of the matter.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Player, Years, Eight

  27 Copy quote

• I have never in my life played the French Defence, which is the dullest of all openings

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Playing Chess, Chess, Defence

  27 Copy quote

• A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Winning, Chess, Artistic

  33 Copy quote

• I play my king all over the board. I make him fight!

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Kings, Fighting, Play

  10 Copy quote

• I am fully and entirely concentrated on the board. I never even consider my opponent's personality. So far as I am concerned, my opponent might as well be an abstraction or an automaton.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Personality, Opponents, Might

  16 Copy quote

• A sacrifice is best refuted by accepting it

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Sacrifice, Chess, Accepting

  24 Copy quote

• Fame, I have already. Now I need the money.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Money, Needs, Chess

  21 Copy quote

• I am not a chess historian - I myself am a piece of chess history, which no one can avoid. I will not write about myself, but I am sure that someone will write.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Writing, Pieces, Chess

  19 Copy quote

• I may be an old lion, but I can still bite someone's hand off if he puts it in my mouth.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Hands, May, Mouths

  21 Copy quote

• Chess is not for timid souls.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Soul, Chess

  22 Copy quote

• In the ending the king is a powerful piece for assisting his own pawns, or stopping the adverse pawns.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Kings, Powerful, Chess

  19 Copy quote

• Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of haviong an evil thought during the game.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Believe, Player, Games

  19 Copy quote

• Capture of the adverse King is the ultimate but not the first object of the game

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Kings, Games, Chess Game

  10 Copy quote

• Chess is difficult, it demands work, serious reflection and zealous research.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Reflection, Demand, Chess

  12 Copy quote

• Have you ever seen a monkey examining a watch?

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Watches, Monkeys, Chess

  14 Copy quote

• I would rather die in America than live in England. I would rather lose a match in America than win one in England. I have come to the conclusion that I neither mean to die soon or to lose the match!

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Mean, Winning, America

  14 Copy quote

• The king pawn and the queen pawn are the only ones to be moved in the early part of the game.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Kings, Queens, Games

  12 Copy quote

• I shall accord to myself the honor of inscribing myself as an applicant for the American citizenship which according to law I can obtain only after five years residence in this country. And I shall yield to no one of my future countrymen in patriotism. I consider America now my real home.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Country, Real, Home

  13 Copy quote

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