Best 681 quotes in «chess quotes» category

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

I have not given any drawn or lost games, because I thought them inadequate to the purpose of the book.

I have nothing to do with politics. I came here [Yugoslavia] to play chess and nothing else.

I honestly don't read that much. Obviously I read chess books - in terms of favorites, Kasparov's 'My Great Predecessors' is pretty good.

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

I like 1.e4 very much, but my results are better with 1.d4.

I learnt an enormous amount, but there came a point where I found there was too much stress. It was no fun any more. Outside of the chessboard I avoid conflict, so I thought this wasn't worth it.

I like to make them squirm.

I like to say that Bobby Fischer was the greatest player ever. But what made Fischer a genius was his ability to blend an American freshness and pragmatism with Russian ideas about strategy

I look one move ahead... the best!

I love chess, but it's the height of decadence.

I'll always take Scrabble and chess if I'm going filming. But I do have the Scrabble dictionary, which can be infuriating for other players.

In 1996, the players at the VSB tournament in Amsterdam sent me a card for my wedding with this dedication, 'Anand congrats on your wedding. You were a great player, now be ready to lose 50 points'.

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

I like to play chess with bald men in the park although it's hard to find 32 of them.

In chess, knowledge is a very transient thing. It changes so fast that even a single mouse-slip sometimes changes the evaluation.

In chess, bigamy is acceptable but monarchy is absolute.

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.

In chess, as in life, a man is his own most dangerous opponent.

In chess there is a world of intellectual values.

In chess the rules are fixed and the outcome is unpredictable, whereas in Putin's Russia the rules are unpredictable and the outcome is fixed.

In chess, you should be as cool as a cucumber.

I maintain that in every position that arises, we should deliberately search, among other things, for pieces which have no retreat. If we see one, we automatically look to see if it can be netted.

In chess, as in life, opportunity strikes but once.

In chess it is more important to frustrate your opponent's strategy than to be obsessed with your own.

In chess one cannot control everything. Sometimes a game takes an unexpected turn, in which beauty begins to emerge. Both players are always instrumental in this.

In general there is something puzzling about the fact that the most renowned figures in chess - Morphy, Pillsbury, Capablanca and Fischer - were born in America.

In conclusion, if you want to unravel the multitude of secrets of chess then don't begrudge the time.

Inexperienced players have a fear of this piece, which seems to them enigmatic, mysterious, and astonishing in its power. We must admit that it has remarkable characteristics which compel respect and occasionally surprise the most wary players.

In Kansas I have a chess school.

In mathematics, if I find a new approach to a problem, another mathematician might claim that he has a better, more elegant solution. In chess, if anybody claims he is better than I, I can checkmate him.

In modern praxis lost positions are salvaged most often when the play is highly complicated with many sharp dynamic variations to be calculated.

In my opinion the Open variation is absolutely correct - and more interesting than the Closed.

In positions of strategic manoeuvring (where time is not of decisive importance) seek the worst-placed piece. Activating that piece is often the most reliable way of improving your position as a whole.

Intellectual activity is perhaps the greatest pleasure of life; chess is one of the forms of intellectual activity.

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

In this respect, I suppose I'm the total opposite of Garry [Kasparov]. With his very emotive body language at the [chess]board he shows and displays all his emotions. I don't.

Intuition in chess can be defined as the first move that comes to mind when you see a position.

I often play a move I know how to refute.

India and China are improving by leaps and bounds and it will be their chess players who will lead the revolution of the XXI century.

I played like a child!

I played tournament chess from fifth grade up into high school.

I played Chess with him and would have beaten him sometimes only he always took back his last move, and ran the game out differently

Is Bobby Fischer quite sane?

I see my own style as being a symbiosis of the styles of Alekhine, Tal and Fischer.

I still hope to kill Fischer

I still remember Botvinnik's reaction to each of my games, right from the opening moves. At first he would express amazement, then annoyance, and, finally irritation.

I study chess eight hours a day, on principle.

It has been stated that a characteristic mark of a combination is surprise; surprise for the defender, not for the assailant, since otherwise the combination will probably be unsound.

I think with chess as with everything, marketing is the main issue.