Chess Players Quotes

Ultimately, what separates a Winner from a Loser at the Grandmaster level is the Willingness to do the Unthinkable.

Garry Kasparov

Levels, Chess, Loser

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First-class players lose to second-class players because second-class players sometimes play a first-class game

Siegbert Tarrasch

Success, Player, Games

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A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough.

Garry Kasparov

Chess, Matter, Brilliant

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What is the object of playing a gambit opening?... To acquire a reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game

Siegbert Tarrasch

Player, Games, Chess Game

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The intelligent perusal of fine games cannot fail to make the reader a better player and a better judge of the play of others.

Emanuel Lasker

Intelligent, Player, Games

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Enormous self-belief, intuition, the ability to take a risk at a critical moment and go in for a very dangerous play with counter-chances for the opponent - it is precisely these qualities that distinguish great players.

Garry Kasparov

Success, Player, Self

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Too many times, people don't try their best. They don't have the keen spirit; the winning spirit. And once you make it you've got to guard your reputation - every day go in like an unknown to prove yourself. That's why I don't clown around. I don't believe in wasting time. My goal is to win the World Chess Championship; to beat the Russians. I take this very seriously.

Bobby Fischer

Success, Believe, Winning

Svetozar Gligorić, Bobby Fischer, Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (1972). “Fischer v Spassky: the World Chess Championship Match, 1972”

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Ultimately, what separates a winner from a loser at the grandmaster level is the willingness to do the unthinkable. A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough. Given the opportunity, I must have the guts to explode the game, to upend my opponent's thinking and, in so doing, unnerve him. So it is in business: One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized.

Garry Kasparov

Moving, Opportunity, Thinking

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Most players ... do not like losing, and consider defeat as something shameful. This is a wrong attitude. Those who wish to perfect themselves must regard their losses as lessons and learn from them what sorts of things to avoid in the future.

Jose Raul Capablanca

Attitude, Loss, Player

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Though most people love to look at the games of the great attacking masters, some of the most successful players in history have been the quiet positional players. They slowly grind you down by taking away your space, tying up your pieces, and leaving you with virtually nothing to do!

Yasser Seirawan

Success, Player, Games

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In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn't do well. They'd get bad openings.

Bobby Fischer

Player, Champion, Chess

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

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Any experienced player knows how a change in the character of the play influences your psychological mood.

Garry Kasparov

Character, Player, Psychology

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The game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And for the Chess player, the success which crowns his work, the great dispeller of sorrows, is named 'combination'.

Emanuel Lasker

Player, Games, Giving

Emanuel Lasker (2013). “Lasker's Manual of Chess”, p.114, Courier Corporation

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Whoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate to one's opponent will never become a good Chess player

Max Euwe

Player, Games, Chess Game

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Women, by their nature, are not exceptional chess players: they are not great fighters.

Garry Kasparov

Player, Chess, Fighter

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All Chess players should have a hobby

Savielly Tartakower

Player, Should Have, Hobbies

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A strong memory, concentration, imagination, and a strong will is required to become a great Chess player

Bobby Fischer

Success, Strong, Memories

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One does not succeed by sticking to convention.

Garry Kasparov

Doe, Chess, Succeed

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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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You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.

Jose Raul Capablanca

Motivation, Winning, Player

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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

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There are tough players and nice guys, and I'm a tough player

Bobby Fischer

Nice, Player, Chess Game

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Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess. That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapidplay in favour of serious chess.

Vladimir Kramnik

Player, Playing Chess, Limits

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We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature

Rudolf Spielmann

Passion, Sacrifice, Fascination

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These young guys are playing checkers. I'm out there playing chess.

Kobe Bryant

Funny, Basketball, Sports

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