Best 681 quotes in «chess quotes» category

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

In chess, bigamy is acceptable but monarchy is absolute.

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.

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

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, 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.

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

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 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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

I often play a move I know how to refute.

Is Bobby Fischer quite sane?

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

I study chess eight hours a day, on principle.

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.

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 thought I was playing the world champion, not some 27-eyed monster who sees everything in all positions.

I think that by and large chess players have been very kind. Like I said there have been a few incidents, but they certainly didn't serve to bring me down any.

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

It is a gross overstatement, but in chess, it can be said I play against my opponent over the board and against myself on the clock.

It is always advantageous to exchange your king's bishop pawn for the king's pawn, since this leads to the seizure of the centre and, in addition, to the opening of a file for the rook.

It is a well known phenomenon that the same amateur who can conduct the middle game quite creditably, is usually perfectly helpless in the end game. One of the principal requisites of good chess is the ability to treat both the middle and end game equally well.

It is annoying that the rules of chess do not allow a pawn to take either horizontally or backwards, but only forwards ... This psychological tuning is ideal for attacking purposes, but what about for defence?

It is better to follow out a plan consistently even if it isn't the best one than to play without a plan at all. The worst thing is to wander about aimlessly.

It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.

It is impossible to ignore a highly important factor of the chess struggle - psychology.

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

It is rightly said that the most difficult thing in chess is winning a won position

It is said that an ounce of common sense can outweigh a ton of 'variations'.

It is the aim of the modern school, not to treat every position according to one general law, but according to the principle inherent in the position

It is dangerous to maintain equality at the cost of placing the pieces passively.