Mikhail Botvinnik Quotes

You have to accustom yourself to practical study at home, you have to devote time to studies, to the history of chess, the development of chess, of chess culture.

If you are going to make your mark among masters, you have to work far harder and more intensively, or, to put it more exactly, the work is far more complex than that needed to gain the title of Master.

Before Geller we did not understand the King's Indian Defence.

Capablanca's play produced and still produces an irresistable artistic effect. In his games a tendency towards simplicity predominated, and in this simplicity there was a unique beauty of genuine depth.

If you are weak in the endgame, you must spend more time analysing studies; in your training games you must aim at transposing to endgames, which will help you to acquire the requisite experience.

It is peculiar but a fact nevertheless, that the gamblers in chess have enthusiastic followers.

There is no better place for learning to work independently and to extend your horizon than in higher school.

I only think well when my mind is calm.

Yes, I have played a blitz game once. It was on a train, in 1929.

It must be clearly understood that Soviet players do not seek simple systems in the opening, but try to formulate opening systems in which everything is complicated, distinctive, or new.

With opposite coloured bishops the attacking side has in effect an extra piece in the shape of his bishop.

A knight ending is really a pawn ending.

Along with my retirement from chess analytical work seems to have gone too.

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

Capablanca's phenomenal move-searching algorithm in those early years, when he possessed a wonderful ability for calculating variations very rapidly, made him invincible.

Chess is a part of culture and if a culture is declining then Chess too will decline

Every great master will find it useful to have his own theory on the openings, which only he himself knows, a theory which is closely linked with plans for the middle game.

Don't worry kids, you'll find work. After all, my machine will need strong chess player-programmers. You will be the first.

Chess cannot be taught. Chess can only be learned.

If Tal would learn to program himself properly, then it would become quite impossible to play against him.

If Tal sacrifices a piece, take it. If Petrosian sacrifices a piece, don't take it.

Above all else, before playing in competitions a player must have regard to his health, for if he is suffering from ill-health he cannot hope for success. In this connection the best of all tonics is 15 to 20 days in the fresh air, in the country.

Chess is no whit inferior to the violin, and we have a large number of professional violinists

It is a well known fact that almost all the outstanding chess-players have been first-class analysts.

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

Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.

Chess mastery essentially consists of analyzing Chess positions accurately