Siegbert Tarrasch Quotes

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.

A lively imagination can exercise itself most fully and creatively in conjuring up magnificent combinations.

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

The future belongs to he who has the bishops.

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

Here are some of the questions and answers to an examination paper in chess that was given some time ago

One doesn't have to play well, it's enough to play better than your opponent

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?

It cannot be too greatly emphasized that the most important role in pawn endings is played by the king.

Mistrust is the most necessary characteristic of the Chess player

Intellectual activity is perhaps the greatest pleasure of life; chess is one of the forms of intellectual activity.

When you see a good move, sit on your hands and see if you can find a better one.

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

I have always had a slight feeling of pity for man who has no knowledge of chess.

As Rousseau could not compose without his cat beside him, so I cannot play chess without my king's bishop. In its absense the game to me is lifeless and void. The vitalizing factor is missing, and I can devise no plan of attack.

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

All lines of play which lead to the imprisonment of the bishop are on principle to be condemned.

White has no positional equivalent for the centralized pawn.

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 man happy.

When you don't know what to do, wait for your opponent to get an idea; it is sure to be bad.

He who fears an isolated Queen's Pawn should give up Chess

I look one move ahead ... the best!

Many have become chess masters - no one has become the master of chess.

Before the endgame, the Gods have placed the middle game

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

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

If the defender is forced to give up the center, then every possible attack follows almost of itself.

In a rook and pawn ending, the rook must be used aggressively. It must either attack enemy pawns, or give active support to the advance of one of its own pawns to the queening square.

I already came upon the world as a extraordinary human being; to my parents' great horror, I was equipped with a clubfoot which, however, did not hamper my rapid progress.

Always put the rook behind the pawn ... Except when it is incorrect to do so.

First-class players lose to second-class players because second-class players sometimes play a first-class game