There is no doubt that the reason for my awful oversight was over-confidence that sapped my sense of danger. So that is where to look for the cause of bad blunders – in the exulting feeling of self-congratulation.
If you study the classic examples of endgame play you will see how the king was brought up as soon as possible even though there seemed no particular hurry at the time.
The study of typical plans is something that the leading grandmasters devote a great deal of time to. I would say that the most far-seeing of them devote as much time to this as to the study of openings.
Anyone who wishes to learn how to play chess well must make himself or herself thoroughly conversant with the play in positions where the players have castled on opposite sides.
Just as the pianist practices the most complicated pieces to improve the technique of his fingers, so too a grandmaster must keep his vision in trim by daily analysis of positions with sharp possibilities, and this applies whether he prefers such positions in his play or not.
The masters and grandmasters can be divided into three groups – the inveterate time trouble merchants, those who sometimes get into trouble, and those for whom the phenomenon is a very rare occurence.
Once we have chosen the right formation in the centre we have created opportunities for our pieces and laid the foundation of subsequent victory.
My achievements in the field of chess are the result of immense hard work in studying theory.
If your opponent is short (on time), play just as you played earlier in the game. If you are short keep calm, I repeat, don’t get flustered. Keep up the same neat writing of the moves, the same methodical examination of variations, but at a quicker rate.
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. –
It has always been recognized that chess is an art, and its best practitioners have been described as artists.
All candidate moves should be identified at once and listed in one’s head. This job cannot be done piecemeal, by first examining one move and then look at another.
