These Quotes are sayings from Chess GM's or other famous people that have been passed from generation to generation primarily by word of mouth (although they may also have been put into some written form) and they represent a truth or some bit of useful wisdom that is usually based on common sense or practical experience. The effect of a Quote is to make the wisdom it tells, seem to be self-evident.

When you see a good move, look for a better one
(Emanuel Lasker)

Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty
(Dominic Lawson)

The Pin is mightier than the sword
(Fred Reinfeld)

We cannot resist the fascination of sacrifice, since a passion for
sacrifices is part of a Chessplayer's nature
(Rudolf Spielman)

All I want to do, ever, is just play Chess
(Bobby Fischer)

A win by an unsound combination, however showy,
fills me with artistic horror
(Wilhelm Steinitz)

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)

Adequate compensation for a sacrifice is having a sound combination leading to a winning position; adequate compensation for a blunder is
having your opponent snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
(Bruce A. Moon)

Strategy requires thought, tactics require observation
(Max Euwe)

I don't believe in psychology. I believe in good moves
(Bobby Fischer)

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

Chess is a beautiful mistress
(Bent Larsen)

Best by test: 1. e4
(Bobby Fischer)

Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist
the sight, although some players make use of them as if
they thought they conferred sight
(Jose Raul Capablanca)

Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all
(Bobby Fischer)

The combination player thinks forward; he starts from
the given position, and tries the forceful moves in his mind
(Emanuel Lasker)

A Chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope
you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an
advantage, and the third... when you know you're going to lose!
(Savielly Tartakower)

Chess demands total concentration
(Bobby Fischer)

Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make people happy
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

All my games are real
(Bobby Fischer)

Chess is everything: art, science and sport
(Anatoly Karpov)

Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

Not all artists are Chess players, but all Chess players are artists
(Marcel Duchamp)

Chess is imagination
(David Bronstein)

I'm not afraid of Spassky. The world knows I'm the best.
You don't need a match to prove it
(Bobby Fischer)

If cunning alone were needed to excel, women
would be the best Chess players
(Albin)

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

On the chessboard, lies and hypocrisy do not survive long
(Emanuel Lasker)

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

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

Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain
so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer
(Albert Einstein)

Human affairs are like a Chess game: only those who do not
take it seriously can be called good players
(Hung Tzu Ch'eng)

The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made
(Savielly Tartakover)

Via the squares on the chessboard, the Indians explain the movement of
time and the age, the higher influences which control the world and
the ties which link Chess with the human soul
(Al-Masudi)

It is no time to be playing Chess when the house is on fire
(Italian Proverb)

You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it.  But what Chess teaches you is that you
must sit there calmly and think about whether its really a good idea
and whether there are other better ideas
(Stanley Kubrick)

Daring ideas are like Chess men moved forward. They may be beaten,
but they may start a winning game
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Of all my Russian books, the defense contains and diffuses the greatest 'warmth' which may seem odd seeing how supremely abstract
Chess is supposed to be
(Vladimir Nabokov)

For surely of all the drugs in the world, Chess must be
the most permanently pleasurable
(Assiac)

A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes
the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them
not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that
characterize all worthwhile art: originality, invention, conciseness,
harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity
(Vladimir Nabokov)

Personally, I rather look forward to a computer program winning the
world Chess Championship. Humanity needs a lesson in humility
(Richard Dawkings)

The boy (then a 12 year old boy named Anatoly Karpov) doesn't have a
clue about Chess, and there's no future at all for him in this profession
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

As one by one I mowed them down, my superiority
soon became apparent
(Jose Capablanca)

Though most people love to look at the games of the great attacking masters, some of the most successful players in history have been the quiet positional
players. They slowly grind you down by taking away your space, tying
 up your pieces, and leaving you with virtually nothing to do!
(Yasser Seirawan)

Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people
(Nigel Short)

There must have been a time when men were demigods,
or they could not have invented Chess
(Gustav Schenk)

Chess is really ninety nine percent calculation
(Soltis)

Chess is the gymnasium of the mind
(Blaise Pascal)

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)

Winning isn't everything... but losing is nothing
(Mednis)

Only sissies Castle
(Rob Sillars)

Look at Garry Kasparov. After he loses, invariably he wins the
next game. He just kills the next guy. That's something
that we have to learn to be able to do
(Maurice Ashley)

There just isn't enough televised Chess
(David Letterman)

Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently.
Be the Chess player, not the Chess piece
(Ralph Charell)

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)

Any material change in a position must come about by mate,
a capture, or a Pawn promotion
(Purdy)

We don't really know how the game was invented, though there are
suspicions. As soon as we discover the culprits, we'll let you know
(Bruce Pandolfini)

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

Chess makes man wiser and clear-sighted
(Vladimir Putin)

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)

Blessed be the memory of him who gave the world this immortal game
(A. G. Gardiner)

In the perfect Chess combination as in a first-rate short story, the
whole plot and counter-plot should lead up to a striking finale,
the interest not being allayed until the very last moment
(Yates and Winter)

Castle early and often
(Rob Sillars)

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
(Vlastimil Hort)

Chess is a more highly symbolic game, but the aggressions are
therefore even more frankly represented in the play. It probably
began as a war game; that is, the representation of a miniature
battle between the forces of two kingdoms
(Karl Meninger)

No Chess Grandmaster is normal; they only
differ in the extent of their madness
(Viktor Korchnoi)

Chess is 99 percent tactics
(Teichmann)

I'd rather have a Pawn than a finger
(Reuben Fine)

Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing
Chess positions accurately
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

If your opponent cannot do anything active, then don't rush the position;
instead you should let him sit there, suffer, and beg you for a draw
(Jeremy Silman)

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)

Examine moves that smite! A good eye for smites is far more
important than a knowledge of strategical principles
(Purdy)

Chess is like life
(Boris Spassky)

If your opponent offers you a draw, try to work out
why he thinks he's worse off
(Nigel Short)

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
(Stanley Kubrick)

Let the perfectionist play postal
(Yasser Seirawan)

If Chess is a science, it's a most inexact one. If Chess is an art, it is too
exacting to be seen as one. If Chess is a sport, it's too esoteric. If Chess
is a game, it's too demanding to be just a game. If Chess is a mistress,
she's a demanding one. If Chess is a passion, it's a rewarding
one. If Chess is life, it's a sad one
(Unknown)

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)

You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5,
and the path leading out is only wide enough for one
(Mikhail Tal)

I feel as if I were a piece in a game of Chess, when my
opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved
(Soren Kierkegaard)

When your house is on fire, you cant be bothered with the neighbors.
Or, as we say in Chess, if your King is under attack you dont worry
about losing a Pawn on the Queen's side
(Gary Kasparov)

Man is a frivolous, a specious creature, and like a Chess player, cares
more for the process of attaining his goal than for the goal itself
(Dostoyevsky)

When asked, -How is that you pick better moves than your opponents?,
I responded: I'm very glad you asked me that, because, as it happens,
there is a very simple answer. I think up my own moves, and I
make my opponent think up his
(Alexander Alekhine)

Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

What is the object of playing a gambit opening?... To acquire a
reputation of being a dashing player at the cost of losing a game
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Pawns: they are the soul of this game, they alone
form the attack and defense
(Philidor)

Chess is above all, a fight!
(Emanuel Lasker)

In Chess, at least, the brave inherit the earth
(Edmar Mednis)

There are two classes of men; those who are content to yield to circumstances and who play whist; those who aim to control
circumstances, and who play Chess
(Mortimer Collins)

The tactician must know what to do whenever something needs doing;
the strategist must know what to do when nothing needs doing
(Savielly Tartakover)

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)

All Chess players should have a hobby
(Savielly Tartakower)

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
(Mark Twain)

The tactician knows what to do when there is something to do; whereas
the strategian knows what to do when there is nothing to do
(Gerald Abrahams)

In Chess, just as in life, today's bliss may be tomorrow's poison
(Assaic)

You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a
game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games
before becoming a good player
(Jose Raul Capablanca)

The way he plays Chess demonstrates a man's whole nature
(Stanley Ellin)

You can only get good at Chess if you love the game
(Bobby Fischer)

A man that will take back a move at Chess will pick a pocket
(Richard Fenton)

Whoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate
to one's opponent will never become a good Chess player
(Euwe)

In blitz, the Knight is stronger than the Bishop
(Vlastimil Hort)

Chess is a fighting game which is purely intellectual and includes chance
(Richard Reti)

Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe
(Hindu proverb)

Pawn endings are to Chess what putting is to golf
(Cecil Purdy)

Chess opens and enriches your mind
(Saudin Robovic)

The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard
(Aaron Nimzovich)

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 a terrific way for kids to build self image and self esteem
(Saudin Robovic)

If a ruler does not understand Chess, how can he rule over a kingdom?
(King Khusros II)

Chess is a cold bath for the mind
(Sir John Simon)

Becoming successful at Chess allows you to discover your
own personality. That's what I want for the kids I teach
(Saudin Robovic)

Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is
capable of having an evil thought during the game
(Wilhelm Steinitz)

You are for me the Queen on d8 and I am the Pawn on d7!!
(GM Eduard Gufeld)

By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
    First: Foresight...    Second: Circumspection...    Third: Caution...
And lastly, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged by
present bad appearances in the state of our affairs, the habit of hoping
 for a favorable chance, and that of persevering in the secrets of resources
(Benjamin Franklin)

I prefer to lose a really good game than to win a bad one
(David Levy)

Capture of the adverse King is the ultimate
but not the first object of the game
(William Steinitz)

When I have White, I win because I am white;
When I have Black, I win because I am Bogolyubov
(Bogolyubov)

Every Pawn is a potential Queen
(James Mason)

Chess is in its essence a game, in its form an art,
and in its execution a science
(Baron Tassilo)

No price is too great for the scalp of the enemy King
(Koblentz)

In life, as in Chess, ones own Pawns block ones way.  A mans
very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help
him to win, more often checkmate him
(Charles Buxton)

Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is
declining then Chess too will decline
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound
but leaves your opponent dazed and confused
(Rudolph Spielmann)

Chess, like any creative activity, can exist only through
the combined efforts of those who have creative talent, and
those who have the ability to organize their creative work
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

One bad move nullifies forty good ones
(Horowitz)

Place the contents of the Chess box in a hat, shake them up
vigorously, pour them on the board from a height of two
feet, and you get the style of Steinitz
(H. E. Bird)

I have never in my life played the French Defence,
which is the dullest of all openings
(Wilhelm Steinitz)

Pawns are born free, yet they are everywhere in chains
(Rick Kennedy)

It is not a move, even the best move
that you must seek, but a realizable plan
(Eugene Znosko-Borovsky)

Those who say they understand Chess, understand nothing
(Robert Hubner)

Good offense and good defense both
begin with good development
(Bruce A. Moon)

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)

A good player is always lucky
(Jose Raul Capablanca)

The sign of a great Master is his ability to win
a won game quickly and painlessly
(Irving Chernev)

One of these modest little moves may be more embarrassing
to your opponent than the biggest threat
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Live, lose, and learn, by observing your opponent how to win
(Amber Steenbock)

The older I grow, the more I value Pawns
(Keres)

Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the world of Chess
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

The beauty of a move lies not in its' appearance
but in the thought behind it
(Aaron Nimzovich)

My God, Bobby Fischer plays so simply
(Alexei Suetin)

You need not play well - just help your opponent to play badly
(Genrikh Chepukaitis)

It is difficult to play against Einsteins theory --on his first loss to Fischer
(Mikhail Tal)

The only thing Chess players have in common is Chess
(Lodewijk Prins)

Bobby just drops the pieces and they fall on the right squares
(Miguel Najdorf)

We must make sure that Chess will not be like a dead language,
very interesting, but for a very small group
(Sytze Faber)

The passion for playing Chess is one of the
most unaccountable in the world
(H.G. Wells)

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 enormous mental resilience, without which no Chess player
can exist, was so much taken up by Chess that he could
never free his mind of this game
(Albert Einstein)

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

Do you realize Fischer almost never has any bad pieces? He exchanges them, and the bad pieces remain with his opponents
(Yuri Balashov)

It is always better to sacrifice your opponent's men
(Savielly Tartakower)

In Chess, as it is played by masters, chance is practically eliminated
(Emanuel Lasker)

You know you're going to lose. Even when I was ahead I knew I
was going to lose  --on playing against Fischer
(Andrew Soltis)

I won't play with you anymore. You have insulted my friend
--when an opponent cursed himself for a blunder
(Miguel Najdorf)

You know, comrade Pachman, I don't enjoy being a Minister,
I would rather play Chess like you
(Che Guevara)

It began to feel as though you were playing against Chess itself
--on playing against Robert Fischer
(Walter Shipman)

Checkers is for tramps
(Paul Morphy)

When you play Bobby, it is not a question if you win or lose.
It is a question if you survive
(Boris Spassky)

When you absolutely don't know what to do anymore, it is time to panic
(John van der Wiel)

We like to think
(Gary Kasparov)

Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few
(Georg Kieninger)

In complicated positions, Bobby Fischer
 hardly had to be afraid of anybody
(Paul Keres)

It was clear to me that the vulnerable point of the American
 Grandmaster (Bobby Fischer) was in double-edged, hanging, irrational
positions, where he often failed to find a win even in a won position
(Efim Geller)

I love all positions. Give me a difficult positional game, I will play it.
But totally won positions, I cannot stand them
(Hein Donner)

In Fischer's hands, a slight theoretical advantage
is as good a being a Queen ahead
(Isaac Kashdan)

I still hope to kill Fischer
(Boris Spassky)

Is Bobby Fischer quite sane?
(Salo Flohr)

Robert Fischer is a law unto himself
(Larry Evans)

Fischer is under obligation to nobody
(Joseph Platz)

Bobby Fischers current state of mind is indeed a tragedy. One of the
worlds greatest Chess players - the pride and sorrow of American Chess
(Frank Brady)

Fischer is an American Chess tragedy on par with Morphy and Pillsbury
(Mig Greengard)

Nonsense was the last thing Fischer was interested in,
as far as Chess was concerned
(Elie Agur)

Fischer is the strongest player in the world. In fact,
the strongest player who ever lived
(Larry Evans)

If you aren't afraid of Spassky, then I have removed the element of money
(Jim Slater)

I guess a certain amount of temperament is expected of Chess geniuses
(Ron Gross)

Fischer sacrificed virtually everything most of us weakies (to use his term) value, respect, and cherish, for the sake of an artful, often beautiful board game, for the ambivalent privilege of being its greatest master
(Paul Kollar)

Fischer Chess play was always razor-sharp,
rational and brilliant. One of the best ever
(Dave Regis)

Fischer wanted to give the Russians a taste of their own medicine
(Larry Evans)

With or without the title, Bobby Fischer was
unquestionably the greatest player of his time
(Burt Hochberg)

Fischer is completely natural. He plays no roles.
He's like a child. Very, very simple
(Zita Rajcsanyi)

Spassky will not be psyched out by Fischer
(Mike Goodall)

Already at 15 years of age he was a Grandmaster, a record at
that time, and his battle to reach the top was the background
for all the major Chess events of the 1960
(Tim Harding)

Fischer, who may or may not be mad as a hatter,
has every right to be horrified
(Jeremy Silman)

When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our
game, he replied: 'Well, you laughed when I wrote it down!'
(Mikhail Tal)

I look one move ahead... the best!
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Fischer prefers to enter Chess history alone
(Miguel Najdorf)

Bobby is the most misunderstood, misquoted celebrity
walking the face of this earth
(Yasser Seirawan)

When you don't know what to play, wait for an idea to come into your opponent's mind. You may be sure that idea will be wrong
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

There is no remorse like the remorse of Chess
(H. G. Wells)

By this measure (on the gap between Fischer & his contemporaries),
I consider him the greatest world champion
(Garry Kasparov)

By the beauty of his games, the clarity of his play, and the brilliance
of his ideas, Fischer made himself an artist of the same
stature as Brahms, Rembrandt, and Shakespeare
(David Levy)

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)

Many Chess players were surprised when after the game, Fischer quietly explained: 'I had already analyzed this possibility' in a position
which I thought was not possible to foresee from the opening
(Mikhail Tal)

Suddenly it was obvious to me in my analysis I had missed what
Fischer had found with the greatest of ease at the board
(Mikhail Botvinnik)

The King is a fighting piece. Use it!
(Wilhelm Steinitz)

A thorough understanding of the typical mating continuations makes
the most complicated sacrificial combinations leading up to them
not only not difficult, but almost a matter of course
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Bobby Fischer is the greatest Chess genius of all time!
(Alexander Kotov)

The laws of Chess do not permit a free choice:
you have to move whether you like it or not
(Emanuel Lasker)

First-class players lose to second-class players because
second-class players sometimes play a first-class game
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Bobby is the finest Chess player this country ever produced. His memory
for the moves, his brilliance in dreaming up combinations,
and his fierce determination to win are uncanny
(John Collins)

After a bad opening, there is hope for the middle game. After a bad
middle game, there is hope for the endgame. But once you are
in the endgame, the moment of truth has arrived
(Edmar Mednis)

Weak points or holes in the opponent's position must
be occupied by pieces not Pawns
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

There is only one thing Fischer does in Chess
without pleasure: to lose!
(Boris Spassky)

Bobby Fischer is the greatest Chess player who has ever lived
(Ken Smith)

Up to this point White has been following well-known analysis. But
now he makes a fatal error: he begins to use his own head
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Fischer was a master of clarity and a king of artful positioning. His opponents would see where he was going but were powerless to stop him.
(Bruce Pandolfini)

No other master has such a terrific will to win. At the board he radiates danger, and even the strongest opponents tend to freeze, like rabbits when they smell a panther. Even his weaknesses are dangerous. As white, his opening game is predictable - you can make plans against it - but so strong that your plans almost never work. In the middle game his precision and invention are fabulous, and in the end game you simply cannot beat him
(Anonymous German Expert)

White lost because he failed to remember the right
continuation and had to think up the moves himself
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

Not only will I predict his triumph over Botvinnik, but I'll go further and say that he'll probably be the greatest Chess player that ever lived
(John Collins)

I consider Fischer to be one of the greatest opening experts ever
(Keith Hayward)

I like to say that Bobby Fischer was the greatest player ever. But
what made Fischer a genius was his ability to blend an American
freshness and pragmatism with Russian ideas about strategy
(Bruce Pandolfini)

At this time Fischer is simply a level above all
the best Chessplayers in the world
(John Jacobs)

I have always a slight feeling of pity for the man who
has no knowledge of Chess
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

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
(Lisa Lane)

He who takes the Queen's Knight's Pawn will sleep in the streets
(Anonymous)

I had a toothache during the first game. In the second game I had a
headache. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism. In the
fourth game, I wasn't feeling well. And in the fifth game? Well,
must one have to win every game?
(Siegbert Tarrasch)

The stomach is an essential part of the Chess master
(Bent Larsen)

We must make sure that Chess will not be like a dead language, very interesting, but for a very small group
(Sytze Faber)

I'm not a materialistic person, in that, I don't suffer the lack or loss of money.  The absence of worldly goods I don't look back on. For Chess is a way I
can be as materialistic as I want without having to sell my soul
(Jamie Walter Adams)

These are not pieces, they are men! For any man to walk into the line of fire will be one less man in your army to fight for you. Value every troop and use him wisely, throw him not to the dogs as he is there to serve his King
(Jamie Walter Adams)

"Chess isn’t a game of speed, it is a game of speech through actions"
(Matthew Selman)

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