Chess Quotes

“It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but a real plan.”

“The passed pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient.”

“Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation.”

“Whoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate to one's opponent will never be a good chess player.”

“When your house is on fire, you can't be bothered with the neighbors. Or, as we say in chess, if your king is under attack, don't worry about losing a pawn on the queen's side.”

“Does the general public, do even dedicated chess fans, have any idea of the extent of the mental tension, of the suffering, that chess professionals have to endure?”

“Alekhine is a poet who creates a work of art in chess.”

“It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek, but a real plan.”

“The pin is mightier than the sword.”

“Even the laziest king flees wildly in the face of a double check.”

“A player who is afraid of the consequences of a variation will not achieve much.”

“The most important thing in chess is not to be afraid of your opponent.”

“The computer has no soul. It can’t create beauty, it can only calculate.”

“Chess for me is not a game, but an art. Yes, and I take upon myself all the responsibilities which an art imposes on its adherents.”

“I don't play chess, I fight at chess. Therefore, I willingly combine the tactical with the strategic, the fantastic with the scientific, the combinative with the positional, and I am not ashamed to confess to this.”

“A good player is always lucky.”

“During a chess tournament a master must be a celibate monk, not smoke, not drink, not listen to music, and not see women.”

“The point is not to completely calculate the variant, but to evaluate the position at the end of the variant.”

“Let the perfectionist play postal chess.”

“In chess, just as in life, today's sunshine is yesterday's rainfall.”