QUOTES BY TOPIC : BISHOPS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
BISHOPS

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As I had noticed many times before, the relations between bishops g2/b7 and b2/g7 are always in favour of the kingside bishops. Wondering why it is has always been felt like that, I realized that it wasn't a mere feeling but an objective fact, as the kingside bishop is usually protected by the king after castling, which is an important detail. ---Anish Giri---

The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding decrease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to the bishop. ---Jose Capablanca---

To refer to the oft mooted question, "Which piece is stronger, the Bishop or the Knight?" it is clear that the value of the Bishop undergoes greater changes than that of the Knight. ---Emanuel Lasker---

While some are as loathe to trade a Bishop for a Knight as a Cadillac for a Chevrolet, others are prepared to do so without hesitation. ---Larry Evans---

With opposite coloured bishops the attacking side has in effect an extra piece in the shape of his bishop. ---Mikhail Botvinnik---

Most chess players know, thanks to the study of master games, that two bishops are stronger than two knights or than bishop and knight, though very few know the reason for this advantage and how to turn it to account. ---Richard Reti---

As Rousseau could not compose without his cat beside him, so I cannot play chess without my king's bishop. In its absense the game to me is lifeless and void. The vitalizing factor is missing, and I can devise no plan of attack. ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

The future belongs to he who has the bishops. ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : KNIGHTS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
KNIGHTS

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The fact that a knight is temporarily on the edge of the board is of no great significance. ---Anatoly Karpov---

The Knight of QB3 is under obligation, the moment the enemy gives him the chance, of undertaking an invasion of the center by Kn-Q5. ---Aaron Nimzowitsch---

To have a knight planted in your game at K6 is worse than a rusty nail in your knee. --- Efim Bogoljubow---

I have added these principles to the law: get the Knights into action before both bishops are developed. ---Emanuel Lasker---

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. ---Eugene Znosko-Borowski---

Althought the Knight is generally considered to be on a par with the Bishop in strength, the latter piece is somehat stronger in the majority of cases in which they are opposed to each other. ---Jose Capablanca---

The knight is renowned for, among other things, its suitability as a blockader ... Because its strength lies in short-range operations it is not uncomfortable standing in a single spot for long periods, as the Bishop is. ---Samuel Reshevsky---

Seize the outpost K5 with your knight, and you can go to sleep. Checkmate will come by itself. ---Savielly Tartakower---

Tartakower once wrote that after planting a Knight in the center you can go to sleep. This is not to be taken literally, of course, but it contains more than a germ of truth. ---Samuel Reshevsky---

I know the knights walke in this game too well, Hee maye skip over mee, and where am I then? (1624)  ---Thomas Middleton---

In blitz, the knight is stronger than the bishop. --- Vlastmil Hort ---

The weaker the player the more terrible the Knight is to him, but as a player increases in strength the value of the Bishop becomes more evident to him, and of course there is, or should be, a corresponding decrease in his estimation of the value of the Knight as compared to the bishop. ---Jose Capablanca---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : PAWNS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
PAWNS

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Two passed pawns advancing on the enemy pieces have brought me more than a dozen points in tournaments. ---David Bronstein---

... les Pions. Il sont l’âme des Echecs ... ... the Pawns: They are the very Life of this Game. ---Francois-Andre Danican Philidor---

The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance are not sufficient. ---Aaron Nimzowitsch---

No pawn exchanges, no file-opening, no attack. ---Aaron Nimzowitsch---

The isolated pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard. ---Aaron Nimzowitsch---

The placing of the center pawns determines the 'topography' of a game of chess. ---Alexander Kotov---

Once upon a time supporters of the Steinitz-Tarrasch school had a very high opinion of a queen-side pawn majority. Modern strategy on the other hand categorically denies that such a majority is an independent factor of any importance. ---Alexander Kotov---

Pawns not only create the sketch for the whole painting, they are also the soil, the foundation, of any position. ---Anatoly Karpov---

I have found after 1.d4 there are more opportunities for richer play. --- Anatoly Karpov---

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

A pawn, when separated from his fellows, will seldom or never make a fortune. --- Francois-Andre Danican Philidor---

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. --- Francois-Andre Danican Philidor---

Best by test (on 1. e4) ---Bobby Fischer---

The shortcoming of hanging pawns is that they present a convenient target for attack. As the exchange of men proceeds, their potential strength lessens and during the endgame they turn out, as a rule, to be weak. ---Boris Spassky---

The power of hanging pawns is based precisely in their mobility, in their ability to create acute situations instantly. ---Boris Spassky---

Any material change in a position must come about by mate, a capture, or a Pawn - promotion. ---Cecil Purdy---

Pawn endings are to chess what putting is to golf. --- Cecil Purdy---

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? ---David Bronstein---

I have found that after 1.d4 there are more opportunities for richer play. ---Garry Kasparov---

Two passed pawns on the sixth beat everything, up to a royal flush. ---Ian Rogers---

‘My ultimate fantasy,’ she says, eyes flashing, Russian accent on full, ‘is to play e4 and d4 equally well…to be a two-headed monster. That’s a dream with some soul in it.’ as quoted at Chessbase in 2005 ---Irina Krush---

Every pawn is a potential queen. ---James Mason---

A passed pawn increase in strength as the number of pieces on the board diminishes. ---Jose Capablanca---

The winning of a pawn among good players of even strength often means the winning of the game. ---Jose Capablanca---

As a rule, pawn endings have a forced character, and they can be worked out conclusively. ---Mark Dvoretsky---

The most important feature of the Chess position is the activity of the pieces. This is absolutely fundamental in all phases of the game: Opening, Middlegame and especially Endgame. The primary constraint on a piece's activity is the pawn structure. ---Michael Stean---

The pawn move is a capital investment. Every one of the forty-eight should, from the beginning, be spent as if it were one of the last forty-eight apprehensive and responsible dollars between yourself and starvation. ---William Ewart Napier---

The older I grow, the more I value pawns. ---Paul Keres---

The essential disadvantage of the isolated pawn ... lies not in the pawn itself, but in the square in front of the pawn. --- Richard Reti---

I'd rather have a Pawn than a finger. ---Rueben Fine---

He who fears the isolated queen's pawn should give up chess. ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

White has no positional equivalent for the centralized pawn. ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

The king pawn and the queen pawn are the only ones to be moved in the early part of the game. ---Wilhelm Steinitz---

Throughout chess history, great debates have raged about the pros and cons of hanging pawns. The debates are nonsense; the answer is cut and dried. If the pawns can be attacked and forced to move forward, they are weak. If they can be defended and remain where they are, they are strong. ---Yasser Seirawan---

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---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : YOUNGSTERS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
YOUNGSTERS

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It’s very important not to put pressure on a child. Make sure that she/he feels that whatever happens it’s not the end of the world. If they cry after a loss that’s normal, as adults also hate to lose. If they win a game you should make them feel very proud but make sure they know the next game will be another challenge. ---Judit Polgar---

When you're good at something, you should continue to do it. Too many players have stopped at a relatively young age ... ---Jan Timman---

Chess is, in essence, a game for children. Computers have exacerbated the trends towards youth because they now have an immensely powerful tool at their disposal and can absorb vast amounts of information extremely quickly. ---Nigel Short---

I don't know if people know this but I am pretty good at chess. I was always on the chess team at school when I was younger. ---Justin Bieber---

The loss of my childhood was the price for becoming the youngest world champion in history. When you have to fight every day from a young age, your soul can be contaminated. I lost my childhood. I never really had it. I have to be careful not to become cruel, because I became a soldier too early. ---Garry Kasparov---

Ridicule can do much, for instance embitter the existence of young talents. ---Aaron Nimzowitsch---

Young players expose themselves to grave risks when they blindly imitate the innovations of masters without themselves first checking all the details and consequences of these innovations. ---Alexander Alekhine---

It is a delight to watch a young and gifted chess player. To him have come no sinister experiences; to him continual carping care is foreign. Therefore he loves the attack and the bold sacrifice; for theirin lies the shortest way to his ultimate objective. ---Richard Reti---

Young players calculate everything, a requirement of their relative inexperience.  ---Samuel Reshevsky---

… Today many players, especially young ones, think that the older openings are so thoroughly analysed that nothing more can be tried. This is a serious mistake. The methods of positional play become deeper and finer each year. Being well acquainted with them it is possible even in openings which seem to be fully explored to find ways to create a real fight. ---Tigran Petrosian---

It is easy to play against the young players, for me they are like an open book. ---Tigran Petrosian---

I would wish to stress to young people ( the old are either saints, or already dead ) that chess need not be a safe exit from memorized opening to scientific endgame ( middlegame murdered ). Chess can be alive always and rewarding ! ---Tony Santasiere---

Nowadays, when you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it. --- Viswanathan Anand---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : WOMEN

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
WOMEN

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I was labeled as a tricky player early on and have been regarded as tricky throughout my whole career. It was said that I was able to pull out tricks from nowhere. ---Judit Polgar---

When men lose against me, they always have a headache ... or things of that kind. I have never beaten a completely healthy man! ---Susan Polgar---

If cunning alone were needed to excel, women would be the best chess players. ---Adolf Albin---

During the late Victorian period the majority of chess magazines printed increasing numbers of humourous stories, poems and anecdotes about the agonies and idiocies of women chess players, presumably as an antidote to the alarmed reaction of men to the fact that women were encroaching on their 'territory'. (British Chess Magazine)

… the woman who grows up with the idea that she is simply to be an amiable animal, to be caressed and coaxed, is invariably a bitterly disappointed woman. A game of chess will cure such a conceit forever. The woman that knows the most, thinks the most, feels the most, is the most. Intellectual affection is the only lasting love. Love that has a game of chess in it can checkmate any man and solve the problem of life. ---Charles Dickens---

There can be no finer example of the inspiring powers of competition to shatter the status quo than Hungary's Judit Polgar. ---Garry Kasparov---

Thanks to the Polgars the adjective 'men's' before events and the 'affirmative action' women's titles such as Woman Grandmaster have become anachronisms (though they are still in use) ---Garry Kasparov---

If there were a 1:1 ratio of women and men in the chess world I would agree that all tournaments should be integrated. But a lot of women feel alienated at these mixed events, so it’s positive to have occasional all women’s events. ---Jennifer Shahade---

We see no objection to ladies entering the tournament by correspondence but should recommend them to use the name of some male relative ( a father or a brother), unless her opponent is a lady also. Many ladies are clever chess players, and good housewives too. = - 1865 - reply to reader of Household Chess Magazine

I could give any woman in the world a piece and a move. to Gaprindashvili even, a knight. ---Bobby Fischer---

Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight! ---Mikhail Tal---

Can you imagine the relief it gives a mother when her child amuses herself quietly for hours on end? ---Charles Dickens---

I have always felt that Judit was a relatively slow starter, though she is extremely motivated, diligent, hard-working, and disciplined towards her goals in chess and in life. ---Susan Polgar---

If we talk about pure abilities and skills, I believe there should be no reason why women cannot play as well as men. ---Susan Polgar---

What we need are lots of girls who aren't as good as us, who'll treat us with the proper respect and reverance. ---David Norwood---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : BEAUTY

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
BEAUTY

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When I found that idea I simply couldn’t resist playing it. And look, people talk about me as a player who doesn’t care about beauty. That’s not true. It’s simply that during the game each person sees beauty in different things. I like the beauty of the endgame, but I also get pleasure from finding ideas like those against Grischuk. (on his game vs. Grischuk at the Tal Memorial 2012)---Magnus Carlsen---

I am both sad and pleased that in his last tournament, Rashid Gibiatovich came to my home in Latvia. He did not take first place, but the prize for beauty, as always, he took with him. Players die, tournaments are forgotten, but the works of great artists are left behind them to live on forever. (on Nezhmetdinov) ---Mikhail Tal---

The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance but in the thought behind it. ---Aaron Nimzowitsch---

"Oh! this opponent, this collaborator against his will, whose notion of Beauty always differs from yours and whose means (strength, imagination, technique) are often too limited to help you effectively! What torment, to have your thinking and your fantasy tied down by another person!" ---Alexander Alekhine---

I cannot think that a player genuinely loving the game can get pleasure just from the number of points scored no matter how impressive the total. I will not speak of myself, but for the masters of the older generation, from whose games we learned, the aesthetic side was the most important. ---Alexander Kotov---

Without error there can be no brilliancy. ---Emanuel Lasker---

I believe in magic ... There is magic in the creative faculty such as great poets and philosophers conspicuously possess, and equally in the creative chessmaster. ---Emanuel Lasker---

The hallmark of the artist is simplicity. ---Larry Evans---

The Chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem. ---Marcel Duchamp---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : TRUTH

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
TRUTH

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On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not last long. ---Emanuel Lasker---

Kortchnoi's heritage is many-faceted - over the decades he has several times corrected and changed his style. But the main thing has invariably remained his search for chess truth.  ---Garry Kasparov ---

Truth derives its strength not so much from itself as from the brilliant contrast it makes with what is only apparently true. This applies especially to Chess, where it is often found that the profoundest moves do not much startle the imagination. ---Emanuel Lasker---

No fantasy, however rich, no technique, however masterly, no penetration into the psychology of the opponent, however deep, can make a chess game a work of art, if these qualities do not lead to the main goal - the search for truth. ---Vasily Smyslov---

Unfortunately, many regard the critic as an enemy, instead of seeing him as a guide to the truth … ---Wilhelm Steinitz---

The battle for the ultimate truth will never be won. And that's why chess is so fascinating. ---Hans Kmoch---

We are in truth but pieces on this chess board of life, which in the end we leave, only to drop one by one into the grave of nothingness. (c 1120) ---Omar Khayyam---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : POLITICS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
POLITICS

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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. ---Garry Kasparov---

I take judicial notice of the fact many hobby chess players I know have a small library on the game, chess moves and famous players, but are not professionals merely by ownership of such material.   (In dismissing Steven Cohen's case before the Tax Court of Canada whereby Mr. Cohen was attempting to reclaim some of his $122,000 losses at poker by claiming it as a business expense - and claiming that his purchase of poker books and attending a seminar was business-like training)   ---Judge Frank Pizzitelli---

The rise of the Soviet school to the summit of world chess is a logical result of socialist cultural development. ---Alexander Kotov---

A Soviet diplomat, like a skilled chess player, does not expect his opposite number to give up something for nothing, not even a pawn. ---Arthur H. Dean (advisor to US presidents, UN delegate)---

You know, comrade Pachman, I don't enjoy being a Minister, I would rather play chess like you, or make a revolution in Venezuela. ---Che Guevara---

When I ask President Marcos for two million dollars, at worst he wants to know whether he should bring the money straight away or whether I can wait for a cheque in the post. ---Florencio Campomanes---

It's true that in chess as in politics, fund-raising and glad-handing matter. ---Garry Kasparov---

Your Soviet players are cheating, losing the games on purpose to my rival, Botvinnik, in order to increase his points on the score. (to Stalin in Moscow 1936 where he finished in 1st place, 1 point ahead of Botvinnik) ---Jose Capablanca---

Chess players, people who travel all over the world, should be trusted or else not sent anywhere at all. Why are these four people (Antoshion and three other official 'minders') sent along to supervise us? With their meagre experience, all that they did was interfere, more than ever before. And when they were needed, they weren't to be found ... ---Victor Kortchnoi---

I met with similar fate (as Martina Navritalova) after I left Czechoslovakia in 1968. Chess tournaments in which I participated were not reported or appeared without my name. The same year Martina left, a book of chess puzzles by two Czech grandmasters, Vlastimil Hort and Vlastimil Jansa, was published in Prague. The publisher Olympia printed 18,000 copies and when it was done, some censors discovered my name attached to one of the games. They did something unbelievable: they cut out the page with my name, printed a new one without my name and glued it back in the book. They did it page by page, book by book – 18,000 times. ---Lubosh Kavalek---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : COMPUTERS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
COMPUTERS

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There are some things we do much better than computers, but since most of chess is tactically based they do many things better than humans. And this imbalance remains. I no longer have any issues. It’s bit like asking an astronomer, does he mind that a telescope does all the work. He is used to it. It is just an incredible tool that you can use. ---Viswanathan Anand---

It's a very special generation, because during our careers the computer entered chess. So we know how to play without computers, which is also important. We can analyse without computers. I am not saying that younger players cannot do this, but we are more in the habit of doing this. That's important to improve your chess understanding. ---Vassily Ivanchuk---

The computer age has arrived, and it influences everything: analysis, preparation, information. Now a different talent is required - the ability to synthesize ideas. ---Boris Spassky---

If you watch it, you should watch it with other players and try to find moves, like it was before. Now on many sites you watch together with the computer and the pleasure is gone. (on watching broadcast games) ---Boris Gelfand---

Chess is, in essence, a game for children. Computers have exacerbated the trends towards youth because they now have an immensely powerful tool at their disposal and can absorb vast amounts of information extremely quickly. ---Nigel Short---

... far more people make a living as professional chess players today than ever before. Thanks partly to the availability of computer programs and online matches, there has been a mini-boom in chess interest among young people in many countries. ---Kenneth Rogoff---

I’ve never been much of a computer guy at least in terms of playing with computers. Actually until I was about 11 I didn’t use a computer for preparing for games at all. Now, obviously, the computer is an important tool for me preparing for my games. I analyze when I’m on the computer, either my games or my opponents. But mostly my own. ---Magnus Carlsen---

Do not pick a move from a list of computer lines - use your own brains. This is important, especially for young players. It's better to study a worse line well than to reproduce a better computer line. --- Laszlo Hazai---

When you have a World Champion in your smartphone, the myth of the superior brainpower of human chess champions has lost its power. ---Hans Ree---

The thing is, back then you didn't have this transfer of information, this influence of computers and databases. This meant that everything you needed to pick up, you needed to pick up from what happened around you, what happened at tournaments, what the strongest players were doing. You could rely on your talent. It was a fantastic time. You didn't need to learn a lot, you didn't need to prepare a lot; it was all natural. That's why I liked it so much. ---Jan Timman---

I'm sorry Frank, I think you missed it. Queen to bishop three, bishop takes queen, knight takes bishop, mate. HAL 9000 in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" to astronaut Frank Poole

It's little quirks like this that could make life difficult for a chess machine. ---Bobby Fischer---

But whatever you might say and whatever I might say, a machine which can play chess with people is one of the most marvellous wonders of our 20th century! ---David Bronstein---

Listen, I don't want to boast but I do happen to be national champion in Scotland. It just isn't conceivable that you can design a program strong enough to beat players like me. ---David Levy---

Chess masters as well as chess computers deserve less reverence than the public accords them. ---Eliot Hearst---

It was an impressive achievement, of course, and a human achievement by the members of the IBM team, but Deep Blue was only intelligent the way your programmable alarm clock is intelligent. Not that losing to a $10 million alarm clock made me feel any better. ---Garry Kasparov---

Chess is far too complex to be definitively solved with any technology we can conceive of today. However, our looked-down-upon cousin, checkers, or draughts, suffered this fate quite recently thanks to the work of Jonathan Schaeffer at the University of Alberta and his unbeatable program Chinook. ---Garry Kasparov---

Though I would have liked my chances in a rematch in 1998 if I were better prepared, it was clear then that computer superiority over humans in chess had always been just a matter of time. ---Garry Kasparov---

Ironically, the main task of chess software companies today is to find ways to make the program weaker, not stronger, and to provide enough options that any user can pick from different levels and the machine will try to make enough mistakes to give him a chance. ---Garry Kasparov---

Inevitably the machines must win, but there is still a long way to go before a human on his or her best day is unable to defeat the best computer. ---Garry Kasparov---

By the mid-1990s the number of people with some experience of using computers was many orders of magnitude greater than in the 1960s. In the Kasparov defeat they recognized that here was a great triumph for programmers, but not one that may compete with the human intelligence that helps us to lead our lives. ---Igor Aleksander---

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

Today, chess programs have become so good that even grandmasters sometimes struggle to understand the logic behind some of their moves. ---Ken Rogoff---

Chess programs are our enemies, they destroy the romance of chess. They take away the beauty of the game. Everything can be calculated. ---Levon Aronian---

Don't worry kids, you'll find work. After all, my machine will need strong chess player-programmers. You will be the first. - (to Karpov & students, 1965) ----Mikhail Botvinnik---

If chess is a vast jungle, computers are the chainsaws in a giant environmentally insensitive logging company. --- Nigel Short---

For every door the computers have closed they have opened a new one. ---Viswanathan Anand---

I don’t know whether computers are improving the style of play, I know they are changing it. Chess has become a different game, one could say that computers have changed the world of chess. That is pretty clear. ---Vladimir Kramnik---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : GRANDMASTERS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
GRANDMASTERS

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In order to become a grandmaster class player whose understanding of chess is superior to the thousands of ordinary players, you have to develop within yourself a large number of qualities, the qualities of an artistic creator, a calculating practitioner, a cold calm competitor. ---Alexander Kotov---

Here is a definition which correctly reflects the course of thought and action of a grandmaster: - The plan in a game of chess is the sum total of successive strategical operations which are each carried out according to separate ideas arising from the demands of the position. ---Alexander Kotov---

I didn't picture myself as even a grandmaster, to say nothing of aspiring to the chess crown. This was not because I was timid - I wasn't - but because I simply lived in one world, and the grandmasters existed in a completely different one. People like that were not really even people, but like gods or mythical heroes. ---Anatoly Karpov---

Sometimes at lectures I am asked: how would the champions of the last century play today? I think that, after making a hurried study of modern openings, and watching one or two tournaments, the champions of the last century, and indeed the century before that, would very quickly occupy the same place that they occupied when they were alive. ---David Bronstein---

No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness. ---Victor Kortchnoi---

By the time a player becomes a Grandmaster, almost all of his training time is dedicated to work on this first phase. The opening is the only phase that holds out the potential for true creativity and doing something entirely new. ---Garry Kasparov---

If we are to elevate the game of chess to a popular sport, grandmasters must become gladiators, otherwise the game will languish on the periphery, a voice crying in the wilderness, condemned to live and die on a cold arctic shore. (2012)---Michael Basman---

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QUOTES BY TOPIC : CHESS

CHESS QUOTES BY TOPIC
CHESS

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In chess the most unbelievable thing for me is that it’s a game for everybody: rich, poor, girl, boy, old, young. It’s a fantastic game which can unite people and generations! It’s a language which you’ll find people "speak" in every country. If you reach a certain level you find a very rich world! Art, sport, logic, psychology, a battlefield, imagination, creativity not only in practical games but don’t forget either how amazing a feeling it is to compose a study, for example (unfortunately that’s not appreciated these days but it’s a fantastic part of chess!). ---Judit Polgar---

There are certain things which you must beware of and shun like the devil himself: these are drinking, chess, harlots, quarreling, and throwing dice for stakes. (Speculum Regale c 1250)

Chess is so common in Russia, that during our continuance at Moscow, I scarcely entered into any company where parties were not engaged in that diversion; and I very frequently observed in my passage through the streets, the tradesmen and common people playing it before the doors of their shops or houses. The Russians are esteemed great proficients in Chess. (English visitor to Russia in 1772)

Chess is a natural cerebral high. ---Walter Browne---

Chess is, in essence, a game for children. Computers have exacerbated the trends towards youth because they now have an immensely powerful tool at their disposal and can absorb vast amounts of information extremely quickly. ---Nigel Short---

Chess is a game sufficiently rich in meaning that it is easily capable of containing elements of both tragedy and comedy. ---Luke McShane---

Chess is a meritocracy. ---Lawrence Day---

Chess-play is a good and witty exercise of the mind for some kind of men, but if it proceed from overmuch study, in such a case it may do more harm than good; it is a game too troublesome for some men's brains. (clergyman and Librarian at Oxford University) ---Robt. Burton (1621)---

Chess is like a language, the top players are very fluent at it. Talent can be developed scientifically but you have to find first what you are good at. ---Viswanathan Anand---

When you are lonely, when you feel yourself an alien in the world, play Chess. This will raise your spirits and be your counselor in war. ---Aristotle---

When a chess player looks at the board, he does not see a static mosaic, a 'still life', but a magnetic field of forces, charged with energy - as Faraday saw the stresses surrounding magnets and currents as curves in space; or as Van Gogh saw vortices in the skies of Provence. ---Arthur Koestler---

I definitely miss the rush from wiping out an opponent. ---Bruce Pandolfini---

Remember, my darling, the most dangerous thing for the family life is – chess! (character from 1925 Russian silent film 'Chess Fever')

In Chess, as it is played by masters, chance is practically eliminated. ---Emanuel Lasker---

The laws of chess do not permit a free choice: you have to move whether you like it or not. ---Emanuel Lasker---

I honestly don't like him playing chess. I mean I see him sitting there for ten minutes thinking four moves ahead before he makes one. And he actually does the same thing in the ring – he thinks to much. (on Lennox Lewis, undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world) by his coach Emmanuel Steward

All conceptions in the game of chess have a geometrical basis. ---Eugene Znosko-Borowski---

Excelling at chess has long been considered a symbol of more general intelligence. That is an incorrect assumption in my view, as pleasant as it might be. ---Garry Kasparov---

Perhaps chess is the wrong game for the times. Poker is now everywhere, as amateurs dream of winning millions and being on television for playing a card game whose complexities can be detailed on a single piece of paper. ---Garry Kasparov---

Chess continues to advance over time, so the players of the future will inevitably surpass me in the quality of their play, assuming the rules and regulations allow them to play serious chess. But it will likely be a long time before anyone spends 20 consecutive years as number, one as I did. ---Garry Kasparov---

Those who know the marvels of chess and wonder why this game of all games does not enjoy greater popularity may also ask why Pepsi-Cola is consumed by more people than Chateau Lafite, or the Beatles are more familiar than Beethoven. ---Gregor Piatigorsky---

There must have been a time when men were demi-gods - or they could not have invented chess. ---Gustav Schenk---

There is no remorse like a remorse of chess. It is a curse upon man. There is no happiness in chess. ---H.G. Wells---

The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. It slaps the theory of natural selection in the face. It is the most absorbing of occupations. The least satisfying of desires. A nameless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man. You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess. ---H.G. Wells---

Chess can learn a lot from poker. First, chess media and sponsors should emphasize its glamorous aspects: worldwide traveling, parties and escape from real world responsibilities. ---Jennifer Shahade---

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. ---Judit Polgar---

The only thing Chess players have in common is Chess. ---Lodewijk Prins---

Chess is a sport. A violent sport. ---Marcel Duchamp---

Thank you, darling, for learning to play chess. It is an absolute necessity for any well organized family. (in a letter to his wife)---Alexander Pushkin---

The majority of people imagine a chess master as being a townsman who passes his life in an atmosphere of smoke and play in cafes and clubs: a neurasthenic individual, whose nerves and brains are continually working at tension: a one-sided person who has given up his whole soul to chess. ---Richard Reti---

Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make man happy. ---Savielly Tartakower---

I have always had a slight feeling of pity for man who has no knowledge of chess. ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

Many have become chess masters - no one has become the master of chess. ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

Real chessplayers think about chess more or less 24 hours a day. It is a passion and a fate that one has to live with - and it lasts a lifetime. ---Simen Agdestein---

Amberley excelled at chess - a mark, Watson, of a scheming mind. ---Sir Arthur Conan Doyle---

There's not the mystery in ten murders that there is in one game of chess. ---Sir Arthur Conan Doyle---

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted. ---Vladimir Putin---

Let the perfectionist play postal. ---Yasser Seirawan---

Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shakling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer. ---Albert Einstein---

I have always disliked the fierce competitive spirit embodied in that highly intellectual game. . ---Albert Einstein---

I consider chess an art, and accept all those responsibilities which art places upon its devotees. ---Alexander Alekhine---

Chess is a matter of vanity. ---Alexander Alekhine---

It has always been recognized that chess is an art, and its best practitioners have been described as artists. ---Alexander Kotov---

A sport, a struggle for results and a fight for prizes. I think that the discussion about “chess is science or chess is art” is already inappropriate. The purpose of modern chess is to reach a result. ---Alexander Morozevich---

Chess is everything: art, science, and sport. ---Anatoly Karpov---

Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events. ---Benjamin Franklin---

Chess is so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money ---Benjamin Franklin---

The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions, for life is a kind of chess. ---Benjamin Franklin---

Chess is a beautiful mistress. ---Bent Larsen---

For me, chess is at the same time a game, a sport, a science and an art. And perhaps even more than that,. There is someting hard to explain to those who do not know the game well. One must first learn to play it correctly in order to savor its richness. ---Bent Larsen---

Chess is my profession. I am my own boss; I am free. I like literature and music, classical especially. I am in fact quite normal; I have a Bohemian profession without being myself a Bohemian. I am neither a conformist nor a great revolutionary. ---Bent Larsen---

Chess is the gymnasium of the mind. ---Blaise Pascal---

Chess is life. ---Bobby Fischer---

Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponents mind. ---Bobby Fischer---

Chess is a matter of delicate judgement, knowing when to punch and how to duck. ---Bobby Fischer---

Life is like a game of chess, changing with each move. (Chinese Proverb)

Chess is imagination. ---David Bronstein---

The essence of Chess is thinking about what Chess is. ---David Bronstein---

Chess is infinite, and one has to make only one ill-considered move, and one`s opponent`s wildest dreams will become reality. ---David Bronstein---

For me, Chess is life and every game is like a new life. Every chess player gets to live many lives in one lifetime. ---Eduard Gufeld---

Chess is, above all, a fight. ---Emanuel Lasker---

By some ardent enthusiasts Chess has been elevated into a science or an art. It is neither; but its principal characteristic seems to be - what human nature mostly delights in - a fight. ---Emanuel Lasker---

A chess game, after all, is a fight in which all possible factors must be made use of, and in which a knowledge of the opponent's good and bad qualities is of the greatest importance. ---Emanuel Lasker---

Chess is a bond of brotherhood amongst all lovers of the noble game, as perfect as free masonry. It is a leveller of rank - title, wealth, nationality, politics, religion - all are forgotten across the board. ---Frederick Milne Edge---

Chess may be but a game, a pastime, a relaxation; but Chess has at times absorbed the faculties of the intellectual in every clime; it numbers amongst its amateurs the greatest names of battle-fields and thrones; it tells of warriors, poets, painters, sculptors, statemen and divines; it possesses a literature and language of its own; it makes enemies friends, and finds a temple on the ocean, in the fortress, and by the peaceful fireside. ---Frederick Milne Edge---

Chess is mental torture. ---Garry Kasparov---

Botvinnik tried to take the mystery out of Chess, always relating it to situations in ordinary life. He used to call chess a typical inexact problem similar to those which people are always having to solve in everyday life. ---Garry Kasparov---

Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are refined and improved by experience. ---Garry Kasparov---

For me, chess is a language, and if it's not my native tongue, it is one I learned via the immersion method at a young age. ---Garry Kasparov---

Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time. ---George Bernard Shaw---

Chess is a good mistress but a bad master. ---Gerald Abrahams---

It is a curse upon man. There is no happiness in chess. ---H.G. Wells--

Chess is beautiful enough to waste your life for. ---Hans Ree---

Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe. ---Hindu Proverb---

Chess is a great game. No matter how good one is, there is always somebody better. No matter how bad one is, there is always somebody worse. ---I.A. Horowitz---

Chess is not for the timid. ---Irving Chernev---

Playing chess is more athletic than artistic. Champions are more concerned with victory than beauty: it’s war with occasionally graceful kicks. ---Jennifer Shahade---

Chess is not relaxing; it's stressful even if you win. ---Jennifer Shahade---

Chess is the touchstone of intellect. ---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe---

Chess is a cure for headaches. ---John Maynard Keynes---

Chess can never reach its height by following in the path of science ... Let us, therefore, make a new effort and with the help of our imagination turn the struggle of technique into a battle of ideas. ---Jose Capablanca---

Chess is something more than a game. It is an intellectual diversion which has certain artistic qualities and many scientific elements. ---Jose Capablanca---

One can say that in the last decades chess has become more of a sport than of a science. I see it from an artistic point of view. ---Judit Polgar---

I am still a victim of Chess. It has all the beauty of art and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position. ---Marcel Duchamp---

Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic. ---Mikhail Botvinnik---

For a game it is too serious, for seriousness too much of a game. ---Moses Mendelssohn---

Of chess it has often been said that life is not long enough for it - but that is the fault of life, not chess. ---William Ewart Napier---

Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people. ---Nigel Short---

In the Soviets' view, chess was not merely an art or a science or even a sport; it was what it had been invented to simulate: war. ---Pal Benko---

Chess is a test of wills. ---Paul Keres---

Chess is eminently and emphatically the philospher's game. ---Paul Morphy---

Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations - should not absorb or engross the thoughts of those who worship at its shrine, but should be kept in the background, and restrained within its proper province. As a mere game, a relaxation from the severe pursuits of life, it is deserving of high commendation. ---Paul Morphy---

Chess is a fighting game which is purely intellectual and includes chance. ---Richard Reti---

Chess is a contest between two men which lends itself particularly to the conflicts surrounding aggression. ---Rueben Fine---

Chess, like love, is infectious at any age. ---Salo Flohr---

Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders. ---Savielly Tartakower---

Chess is a terrible game. If you have no center, your opponent has a freer position. If you do have a center, then you really have something to worry about! ---Siegbert Tarrasch---

Chess is one long regret. ---Stephen Leacock---

The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature, and the player on the other side is hidden from us. ---Thomas Huxley---

I have frequently stated that I regard chess as an art form, where creativity prevails over other factors. ---Vasily Smyslov---

My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, for all the science and sport involved in it. ---Vasily Smyslov---

Chess is my life. ---Victor Kortchnoi---

For me, chess is not a profession, it is a way of life, a passion. People may feel that I have conquered the peak and will not have to struggle. Financially, perhaps that is true; but as far as chess goes, I’m still learning a lot! ---Viswanathan Anand---

Chess is like body-building. If you train every day, you stay in top shape. It is the same with your brain – chess is a matter of daily training. ---Vladimir Kramnik---

Chess is only a recreation and not an occupation. ---Vladimir Lenin---

I believe that Chess possesses a magic that is also a help in advanced age. A rheumatic knee is forgotten during a game of chess and other events can seem quite unimportant in comparison with a catastrophe on the chessboard. ---Vlastmil Hort---

Chess is a game which reflects most honor on human wit. ---Voltaire---

Ultimately chess is just chess - not the best thing in the world and not the worst thing in the world, but there is nothing quite like it. ---W.C. Fields---

Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of haviong an evil thought during the game. ---Wilhelm Steinitz---

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

Chess is the art of analysis. ---Mikhail Botvinnik---

The battle for the ultimate truth will never be won. And that's why chess is so fascinating. ---Hans Kmoch---

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