Gambit Quotes

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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There is not a single true chess-player in the world whose heart does not beat faster at the mere sound of such long beloved and familiar words as 'gambit games'.

David Bronstein

Heart, Player, Games

David Bronstein (1991). “200 Open Games”, p.8, Courier Corporation

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In the laboratory the gambits all test unfavorably, but the old rule wears well, that all gambits are sound over the board.

William Ewart Napier

Tests, Sound, Boards

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Theory regards this opening as incorrect, but it is impossible to agree with this. Out of the five tournament games played by me with the King's Gambit, I have won all five.

David Bronstein

Kings, Games, Chess

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In my opinion, the King's Gambit is busted. It loses by force.

Bobby Fischer

Kings, Opinion, Busted

"A bust to the King's Gambit" by Bobby Fischer, 1960.

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A gambit never becomes sheer routine as long as you fear you may lose the king and pawn ending!

Bent Larsen

Kings, Long, Routine

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Boris Vasilievich was the only top-class player of his generation who played gambits regularly and without fear ... Over a period of 30 years he did not lose a single game with the King's Gambit, and among those defeated were numerous strong players of all generations, from Averbakh, Bronstein and Fischer, to Seirawan.

Garry Kasparov

Strong, Kings, Player

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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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In a gambit you give up a Pawn for the sake of getting a lost game

Samuel Boden

Giving Up, Games, Chess

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Even in the King's Gambit ... White is no longer trying to attack at all costs. He has had to adapt his approach and look for moves with a solid positional foundation ... As often as not, his strategy consists of stifling Black's activity and then winning in an endgame thanks to his superior pawn structure.

Neil McDonald

Kings, Moving, Winning

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Each of us can, by ploy or gambit, most naturally gain the advantage.

Stephen Potter

Gains, Advantage, Ploy

'Lifemanship' (1950) p. 15

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I write on a computer, but I've run the complete gambit. When I was very young, I wrote with a ballpoint pen in school notebooks. Then I got pretentious and started writing with a dip pen on parchment (I wrote at least a novel-length poem that way). Moved on to a fountain pen. Then a typewriter, then an electric self-correct. Then someone gave me a word processor and I was amazed at being able to fit ten pages on one of those floppy discs.

Charles de Lint

Notebook, Running, Writing

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Most African Americans, especially the men and women from my generation, would accept the nationalist gambit that says only European Americans can be racists, which is an interesting gambit.

Anthony Braxton

Men, Interesting, African American

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A knowledge of tactics is the foundation of positional play. This is a rule which has stood its test in chess history and one which we cannot impress forcibly enough upon the young chess player. A beginner should avoid Queen's Gambit and French Defence and play open games instead! While he may not win as many games at first, he will in the long run be amply compensated by acquiring a thorough knowledge of the game

Richard Reti

Running, Queens, Winning

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The delight in gambits is a sign of chess youth... In very much the same way as the young man, on reaching his manhood years, lays aside the Indian stories and stories of adventure, and turns to the psychological novel, we with maturing experience leave off gambit playing and become interested in the less vivacious but withal more forceful manoeuvres of the position player.

Emanuel Lasker

Adventure, Player, Men

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There's the Ronald Reagan cupped-ear gambit. The press is deliberately and systematically kept away from him. All you hear is a bunch of monkeys screaming at him when they could easily have been brought right up and the president could have stood and talked in a conversational tone.

John Chancellor

Loss, President, Ears

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I would murder to play Gambit again!

Taylor Kitsch

Play, Murder

"Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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Donald Trump is behaving in an extremely provocative way toward China, having first cancelled the TPP and alienated America's friends in the region. Same thing that he's authorizing much riskier gambits against ISIS, having alienated many of America's allies and friends in the region.

David Frum

America, Isis, Firsts

Source: www.cbc.ca

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It would be as naive to study the song of the nightingale, as it would be ridiculous to try and win a King's Gambit against a representative of the old chess guard.

David Bronstein

Song, Kings, Winning

David Bronstein (1991). “200 Open Games”, p.37, Courier Corporation

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It is no secret that any talented player must in his soul be an artist, and what could be dearer to his heart and soul than the victory of the subtle forces of reason over crude material strength! Probably everyone has his own reason for liking the King`s Gambit, but my love for it can be seen in precisely those terms.

David Bronstein

Kings, Heart, Artist

David Bronstein (1991). “200 Open Games”, p.8, Courier Corporation

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What the devil possessed me to reply 1. ... e5?? I compltely forgot that Spassky, like Spielmann in the past, very much likes to play the King's Gambit.

David Bronstein

Kings, Past, Play

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After crippling the big red retard tonight, over a short period of time I have run the gambit of the who's who in the World Wrestling Federation! Crippling Stone Cold Steve Austin, destroying the unstoppable Mankind; putting him out for three months and beating him for the WWF championship. And then, defending it only a week later and dominating...and, oh yeah, taking to school that little punk, your champion, The Rock!

Triple H

Running, Wrestling, School

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Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.

G. H. Hardy

Love, Sacrifice, Math

G. H. Hardy, C. P. Snow (2012). “A Mathematician's Apology”, p.94, Cambridge University Press

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I look at improvising as a prolonged game of chess. There's an opening gambit with your pawn in a complex game I have with one character, and lots of side games with other characters, and another game with myself - and in each game you make all these tiny, tiny moves that get you to the endgame.

Steve Carell

Moving, Character, Games

"First Banana". Interview with Tad Friend, www.newyorker.com. July 5, 2010.

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