Best Chess Quotes

In life, as in chess, forethought wins.

These young guys are playing checkers. I’m out there playing chess.

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you’re in trouble

An innovation need not be especially ingenious, but it must be well worked out.

The chess player who develops the ability to play two dozen boards at a time will benefit from learning to compress his or her analysis into less time.

Americans really don’t know much about chess. But I think when I beat Spassky, that Americans will take a greater interest in chess. Americans like winners.

When I was 18, science, physics, and math were my favorite. I was a bit of a nerd – the only girl with a lot of boys at chess championships.

Chess strategy as such today is still in its diapers, despite Tarrasch’s statement ‘We live today in a beautiful time of progress in all fields’. Not even the slightest attempt has been made to explore and formulate the laws of chess strategy.

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

Could we look into the head of a Chess player, we should see there a whole world of feelings, images, ideas, emotion and passion

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.

I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves

Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.

Like us as Black, beg the chess pieces, and you will anyway like us as White

Well, well. IM (and correspondence GM) Douglas Bryson once told me that he almost never plays a game that flows smoothly from start to finish; there is always a moment of sorts where someone misses a big defensive opportunity or the nature of the position changes more than one might reasonably expect. This was such a moment.

I play chess about four hours a day in training camp. You have to decide what move to use, or what combination of moves. I think less when I box because the reaction time is a lot quicker, but some people call me the chess boxer because they say I think too much in the ring. I take my time and they don’t see the action they want. Some boxers just go in there and just throw punches and hope to win.

A real sacrifice involves a radical change in the character of a game which cannot be effected without foresight, fantasy, and the willingness to risk.

Analysis, if it is really carried out with a complete concentration of his powers, forms and completes a chess player.

If the media didn’t know I played chess, there’d be no angle on me at all.

Football is like chess, only without the dice.

The only thing Chess players have in common is Chess.

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

A great chess player always has a very good memory.

Lack of proper endgame technique allows many players to escape from lost positions, even without any spectacular play on their part.

Possibly, over the course of time, the brain capacity of homo sapiens will have made such great progress, that complications as contained in this game can be fathomed instantly with a shrug and a smile. Then, not only will the game of chess have ceased to exist, but also will the remembrance of frequently missed objectives elicit pity, as a reaction to the shortcomings of a lower organized form of life.

Chess is a meritocracy.

Analysis is a glittering opportunity for training: it is just here that capacity for work, perseverence and stamina are cultivated, and these qualities are, in truth, as necessary to a chess player as a marathon runner.

There’s never before been a Chess player with such a thorough knowledge of the intricacies of the game and such an absolutely indomitable will to win. I think Bobby is the greatest player that ever lived

Chess960 is healthy and good for your chess. If you get into it and not just move the pieces to achieve known positions it really improves your chess vision.

The proper timing of an attacking plan is a difficult matter which places great strain on a player’s nerves. Mastery of this art is required for success in the international arena, but perfect mastery eludes even the very best chessplayers!

In the Soviet Union, for instance, the pressure on the chess stars was immense. When Boris Spassky came home after losing that match, he found he no longer had an apartment in Moscow.

In boxing you create a strategy to beat each new opponent, it’s just like chess.

Objectivity and presence of mind are essential in such positions where sacrificial temptations are not always resistable.

Bobby Fischer was hugely important for the American chess community because it put chess on the map – he made it possible for other chess players to make a living.

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