Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant
may bathe.
-Hindu proverb
Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a
large number of professional violinists.
-Mikhail Botvinnik
Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is declining
then chess too will decline.
-Mikhail Botvinnik, 1978
Think not of defense as drudgery one is forced to suffer
through from time to time in lieu of an offense; think of
defense as offense in close quarters.
-Bruce A. Moon
Chess has an important advantage over "physical" sports in
that each move can be diagrammed and debated to death, and
every sequence duplicated exactly by anyone able to fathom
notation, though they be separated from the original
competitors by an ocean or by a century. Unlike other
sports, chess can be described, analyzed, and debated in a
completely literary format, and this unique quality is
undoubtedly why there are more books written about chess
than all other sports and hobbies combined.
-Bruce A. Moon
Could we look into the head of a chess player, we should
see there a whole world of feelings, images, ideas, emotion
and passion.
-Alfred Binet
Methodical thinking is of more use in chess than
inspiration.
-C. J. S. Purdy
A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me
with artistic horror.
-Wilhelm Steinitz
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
Don't get hung up on static formations. In chess, all
things are fluid, because mobility is everything.
Formations are only valid as part of a sequence or plan,
not as goals.
-Bruce A. Moon
Short of actual blunders, lack of faith in one's position
is the chief cause of defeat. To be sure, it is easy to
recommend faith and not so easy to practice it.
-Fred Reinfeld
Many have become chess masters -- no one has become the
master of chess.
-Siegbert Tarrasch
Mason had the unique quality of competently simmering
through six aching hours, and scintillating in the seventh.
Others resembled him, but forgot to scintillate.
-William Ewart Napier
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
Chess...is a forcing house where the fruits of character
can ripen more fully than in life.
-Edward Morgan Foster
Chess is the art of analysis.
-Mikhail Botvinnik
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.
-Gary Kasparov, 1987
"When in doubt..."
...move a Pawn. -Gene Ramage
...develop. -Anon.
...take more time. -John Zimmerman
...offer a draw. -William H. Nulf
...resign. -Bruce A. Moon
...find a new hobby. -Mark Pasternak
...attack! -Anon.
...retreat! -Anon.
...play any old move and
blame it on Nimzovich! -Bruce A. Moon
...exchange. -John Zimmerman
...seek a lost position. -Bruce A. Moon
There is not the mystery in ten murders that there is in
one game of chess.
-Detective Linley
(in "Two Bottles of Relish")
The world is not likely to tire of an amusement which never
repeats itself, of a game which today presents features as
novel and charms as fresh as those with which it delighted,
in the morning of history, the dwellers on the banks of the
Ganges and Indus.
-Willard Fiske
He who has imagination without learning, has wings and no
feet.
-Joubert
The mistakes are there, waiting to be made.
-Savielly Tartakower
A chess game is a dialogue -- a conversation -- between a
player and his opponent. Each move by the opponent may
contain threats or be a blunder, but a player cannot defend
against threats or take advantage of blunders if he does
not first ask himself, "What is my opponent planning?"
after each move.
-Bruce A. Moon
If the student forces himself to examine all the moves that
smite, however absurd they look at first glance, he is on
the way to becoming a master of tactics.
-C. J. S. Purdy
A defeatist spirit must inevitably lead to disaster.
-Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
Some of Marshall's most sparkling moves look at first like
typographical errors.
-William Ewart Napier
Even the most scintillating combinatorial imagination
requires a solid foundation of pattern recognition.
-Bruce A. Moon
In a gambit you give up a Pawn for the sake of getting a
lost game.
-Samuel Standige Boden
The average player enjoys studying masters' blunders in
much the same frame of mind as someone observing the apes
and monkeys in a zoo -- he sees something of himself, but
in a context which he finds reassuring, rather than
painful.
-Bruce A. Moon
It will be cheering to know that many people are skilful
chess players, though in many instances their brains, in a
general way, compare unfavourably with cogitative faculties
of a rabbit.
-James Mortimer
Once man starts designing `electronic brains' analogous to
human chess players, the inadequacies of `chess thinking'
will be revealed, and the checking of the various methods
of programming will tell us how the live players really
think.
-Mikhail Botvinnik, 1961
Everything is in a state of flux, and this includes the
world of chess.
-Mikhail Botvinnik
Chess has this in common with making poetry, that the
desire for it comes upon the amateur in gusts.
-A. A. Milne
It is not a move, even the best move, that you must seek,
but a realizable plan.
-Eugene Znosko-Borovsky
Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine.
-Mikhail Tal
We must despise our opponents strategically, yet respect
them tactically.
-Mao Tse Tung
Any opening is good enough to be played if it's reputation
is bad enough.
-Savielly Tartakower
When chess masters err, ordinary wood pushers tend to
derive a measure of satisfaction, if not actual glee.
-Israel A. Horowitz
The fact that a player is very short of time is, to my
mind, as little to be considered a an excuse as, for
instance, the statement of the law-breaker that he was
drunk at the time he committed the crime.
-Alexander Alekhine
...Man is frivolous, a specious creature and, like a chess
player, cares more for the process of attaining his goal
than the goal itself.
-Feodor Dostoevsky
First-class players lose to second-class players because
second-class players sometimes play a first-class game.
-Siegbert Tarrasch
The Pawns are the soul of the game.
-Francois Andre Danican Philidor
A recorded game of chess is a story in symbols, relating in
cipher the struggle of two intellects; a story with a real
plot, a beginning, a middle, and an end, in which the
harmonies of time and place are scrupulously observed; the
fickleness of fortune is illustrated; the smiles of the
prosperous, the struggles of adversity, the change that
comes over the two; the plans suggested by one, spoiled by
the tactics of the other -- the lures, the wiles, the
fierce onset, the final victory. An hour's history of two
minds is well told in a game of chess.
-Jose Raul Capablanca
Chess is what it's all about.
-William H. Nulf
It is not enough to be a good player; you must also play
well.
-Siegbert Tarrasch
"The boy doesn't have a clue about chess, and there's no
future at all for him in this profession."
-Mikhail Botvinnik
(referring to a 12-year-old boy named Anatoly Karpov)
A weakness is not a weakness unless the opponent is able to
take advantage. In fact, such a weakness -- one which is
theoretical as opposed to actual -- can sometimes be useful
as a tactical decoy, beguiling the opponent into pressing
for an advantage which does not exist.
-Bruce A. Moon
Now we see wherein lies the pleasure to be derived
from a chess combination. It lies in the feeling that a
human mind is behind the game, dominating the inanimate
pieces with which the game is carried on, and giving them
the breath of life.
-Richard Reti
It is remarkable, and deserves special mention that the
great masters, such as Pillsbury, Maroczy and Janowsky
play against Lasker as though hypnotized.
-George Marco
Ahoy! Check! Ahoy!
-the White Knight
(in "Through the Looking Glass")
When you see a good move, look for a better one.
-Emanuel Lasker
Let sleeping dogmas lie.
-Bruce A. Moon
Strategy requires thought; tactics requires observation.
-Max Euwe
The sign of a great master is his ability to win a won game
quickly and painlessly.
-Irving Chernev
In the opening a master should play like a book, in the
midgame he should play like a magician, in the ending he
should play like a machine.
-Rudolf Spielmann
Aron Nimzovich describing a lesser player: "An amateur who
played a weak enough game to enable him to conduct an
important chess column."
How does the horsey move again?
-Bruce A. Moon
Of my fifty-seven years I have applied at least thirty to
forgetting most of what I have learned or read. Since
then, I have acquired a certain ease and cheer which I
should never again like to be without. If need be, I can
increase my skill in chess; if need be I can do that of
which I have no idea at present. I have stored little in
my memory, but I can apply that little, and it is of use in
many and varied emergencies. I keep it in order, but
resist every attempt to increase its dead weight.
-Emanuel Lasker
Chess is in its essence a game, in its form an art, and in
its execution a science.
-Baron Tassilo von Heyderbrand und der Lasa
Alekhine...is a poet who creates a work of art out of
something that would hardly inspire another man to send
home a picture post card.
-Max Euwe
Of course, the essence of chess is not to be found in the
opening of the game. The basic ingredient of chess is that
in a complex, original situation, where no source of help
is apparent, a player must find the correct solution or
move. Anyone who is able to do this can feel confident at
the board.
-Mikhail Botvinnik
Good offense and good defense both begin with good
development.
-Bruce A. Moon
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
A masterpiece is a masterpiece though a million people say
so.
-Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
The game gives us a satisfaction that Life denies us. And
for the chess player, the success which crowns his work,
the great dispeller of sorrows, is named "combination".
-Emanuel Lasker
While the basic rules of chess can be absorbed in a few
hours, nobody becomes a chess master overnight. The
passage from relative ignorance to relative enlightenment
requires time and study.
-Bruce A. Moon
Chess is not like life -- it has rules!
-Mark Pasternak
Discovered check is the dive bomber of the chessboard.
-Reuben Fine
He said check to my Queen and so, of course, I had to
resign.
-Anonymous Amateur
From Anderssen I learned the art of making combinations;
from Tarrasch how advantageously to avoid making them.
-Rudolf Spielmann
I can't play chess; therefore, the best I can hope to
accomplish is to give my opponents opportunities to go
wrong.
-Bruce A. Moon
Don't make a strong move too soon!
-James Mason
Before the endgame, the gods have placed the middlegame.
-Siegbert Tarrasch
Chess is a beautiful mistress.
-Bent Larsen
I can comprehend Alekhine's combinations well enough; but
where he gets his attacking chances from and how he infuses
such life into the very opening -- that is beyond me.
-Rudolf 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
Premature attacks and early Queen forays tend to generate
tactical opportunities for the opponent.
-Bruce A. Moon
Combinations have always been the most intriguing aspect
of chess. The masters look for them, the public applauds
them, the critics praise them. It is because combinations
are possible that chess is more than a lifeless
mathematical exercise. They are the poetry of the game;
they are to chess what melody is to music. They represent
the triumph of mind over matter.
-Reuben Fine
I warne yow wel, it is no childes pley.
-Geoffrey Chaucer
In my case, when I look at a chess position, I do not see a
static arrangement of squares and markers. I see motion
and lines of force; each position tells the story of its
past while pointing towards its future. A well-played
combination is a symphony of spatial manipulation; it is
poetry of the intellect and ecstasy of the soul.
-Bruce A. Moon
Sit on your hands!
-Siegbert Tarrasch
Without error there can be no brilliancy.
-Emanuel Lasker
In chess there is only one mistake: over-estimation of your
opponent. All else is either bad luck or weakness.
-Savielly Tartakower
Playing through a poorly-played game is like watching a
train wreck -- you know it's going to be horrendous, but
there is a certain fascination in watching it unfold.
-Bruce A. Moon
You can learn much from your mistakes -- though it is
infinitely kinder to the ego to learn from someone else's.
-Fred Reinfeld
Tactics is what you do when there is something to do;
strategy is what you do when there is nothing to do.
-Savielly Tartakower
Every move played disturbs the balance of time, force, and
space -- but not always in equal proportion or direction.
It is possible to give up something in one element while
gaining "adequate compensation" from the other two. This
underlying interaction mechanism is what makes sacrifices
possible.
-Bruce A. Moon
The slowness of genius is hard to bear, but the slowness of
mediocrity is intolerable.
-Henry Thomas Buckle
Skittles are the social glasses of chess -- indulged in too
freely they lead to inebriation, and weaken the consistent
effort necessary to build up a strong game.
-Francois Andre Danican Philidor
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
Chess is profoundly trivial and trivially profound...a
universe simultaneously closed and unbounded.
-George Steiner
Chess doesn't allow for continual flouting of the right
move. A few sins of omission, and a fairly easygoing and
characterless situation is transformed into one that
bristles with lasting difficulties.
-Fred Reinfeld
Botvinnik is working hard at trying to make a computer play
chess as well as a human being, so let me teach human
beings to analyze with the accuracy of a machine.
-Alexsandr Kotov, 1970
Strategy is the imaginary garden; tactics are the real
toads.
-Bruce A. Moon
There is no other game so esteemed, so profound and so
venerable as chess; in the realm of play it stands alone
in dignity.
-Ely Culbertson
Live, lose, and learn, by observing your opponent, how to
win.
-Amber Steenbock
In its highest form, chess becomes sublime, magniloquent
poetry (such as Marshall's "golden shower" move against
Levitsky in 1912); at its nadir a showcase of the most
hopeless dreck (any game of mine will do!).
-Bruce A. Moon
What would chess be without silly mistakes?
-Kurt Richter
Why must I lose to this IDIOT?
-Aron Nimzovich
It is sweet indeed to contemplate from the shore the perils
of the sailor struggling with death.
-Horace
An eye for the microscope betokens the master.
-George Marco
One must be wary not to be deluded by superior game results
against a small circle of opponents. In all likelihood,
this indicates, not any superior ability on one's own part,
but merely the inferior skill of one's opponents.
-Bruce A. Moon
Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for
it -- but that is the fault of life, not chess.
-William Ewart Napier
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. The player on the other side is hidden
from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and
patient. But we also know, to our cost, that he never
overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for
ignorance.
-Thomas Henry Huxley
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
Chess is a form of intellectual productiveness, therein
lies its peculiar charm. Intellectual productiveness is
one of the greatest joys -- if not the greatest one -- of
human existence. It is not everyone who can write a play,
or build a bridge, or even make a good joke. But in chess
everyone can, everyone must be intellectually productive,
and so can share in this select delight. I have always a
slight feeling of pity for the man who has no knowledge of
chess, just as I would pity the man who has remained
ignorant of love. Chess, like love, like music, has the
power to make men happy.
-Siegbert Tarrasch