Chess Quotes - Page 14

• Chess is not for timid souls.

  Wilhelm Steinitz

  Soul

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• In [chess], where the pieces have different and "bizarre" motions, with various and variable values, what is only complex, is mistaken (a not unusual error) for what is profound

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Errors, Profound, Pieces

  Edgar Allan Poe (2008). “Edgar Allan Poe Annotated and Illustrated Entire Stories and Poems”, p.352, Bottletree Books LLC

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• The rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature.

  Thomas Huxley

  Expanding Universe, Law, Games

  'Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews' (1870) 'A Liberal Education'

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• There are two classes of men; those who are content to yield to circumstances and who play whist; those who aim to control circumstances, and who play Chess

  Mortimer Collins

  Men, Yield, Class

  Mortimer Collins, Frank Kerslake (1880). “Attic Salt, Or, Epigrammatic Sayings, Healthful, Humorous and Wise: In Prose and Verse, Collected from the Works of Mortimer Collins”

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• Above all else, before playing in competitions a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Country, Player, Air

  Mikhail Botvinnik (2012). “Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games”, p.10, Courier Corporation

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• By playing at Chess then, we may learn: First: Foresight... Second: Circumspection... Third: Caution...And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources

  Benjamin Franklin

  Secret, May, Playing Chess

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• Chess is my life, but my life is not chess.

  Anatoly Karpov

  Life Is

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• Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all

  Bobby Fischer

  Genius

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• I give 98 percent of my mental energy to Chess Others give only 2 percent

  Bobby Fischer

  Success, Chess Game, Giving

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• Chess is, above all, a fight.

  Emanuel Lasker

  Fighting

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• You can't play chess if you're groggy from pills.

  Anatoly Karpov

  Play, Pills, Ifs

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• The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Pawns, Casts, Isolated

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• Chess is thirty to forty percent psychology. You don't have this when you play a computer. I can't confuse it

  Judit Polgar

  Play, Psychology, Computer

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• I think it's almost definite that the game is a draw theoretically.

  Bobby Fischer

  Thinking, Games, Chess Game

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• Among top grandmasters the Dutch is a rare defense, which is good reason to play it! It has not been studied very deeply by many opponents, and theory, based on a small number of 'reliable' games, must be rather unreliable.

  Bent Larsen

  Small Numbers, Games, Play

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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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• There is no disputing that in the eyes of Schlechter, Teichmann or even Rubinstein, the backward pawn was something more substantial than lively piece play, but in our day the latter is more often preferred.

  David Bronstein

  Eye, Play, Pieces

  David Bronstein, Jim Marfia (1979). “Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953”, p.305, Courier Corporation

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• It doesn't require much for misfortune to strike in the King's Gambit - one incautious move, and Black can be on the edge of the abyss.

  Anatoly Karpov

  Kings, Moving, Black

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• By what right does White, in an absolutely even position, such as after move one, when both sides have advanced 1. e4, sacrifice a pawn, whose recapture is quite uncertain, and open up his kingside to attack? And then follow up this policy by leaving the check of the black queen open? None whatever!

  Emanuel Lasker

  Queens, Moving, Sacrifice

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• Before Geller we did not understand the King's Indian Defence.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Kings, Defence, Opening

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• Every month I look through some ten thousand games, so not as to miss any new ideas and trends.

  Vladimir Kramnik

  Practice, Games, Ideas

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• When you play against an experienced opponent who exploits all the defensive resources at his command you sometimes have to walk time and again, along the narrow path of 'the only move'.

  David Bronstein

  Moving, Play, Opponents

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• It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Style, Peculiar, Followers

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• Independence of thought is a most valuable quality in a chess-player, both at the board and when preparing for a game.

  David Bronstein

  Success, Player, Games

  David Bronstein (1991). “200 Open Games”, p.113, Courier Corporation

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• You have to accustom yourself to practical study at home, you have to devote time to studies, to the history of chess, the development of chess theory, of chess culture.

  Mikhail Botvinnik

  Success, Home, Culture

  "Botvinnik: 100 Selected Games".

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