Chess Quotes

We are like chess players who are trying to predict the opponent's future moves, but in this case, we are dealing with life itself. True masters do not play the game on a single chessboard, but on multiple chessboards at the same time. And what's the difference between grandmasters and masters? Surprises. The moves that cannot be predicted by the opponent. Life can play a simultaneous game with seven billion people at the same time and it can take each and every one of us by surprise. And we still believe we are capable of winning, because we can predict three of four moves ahead. We are insignificant. ~ Jaka Tomc

My study of chess was accompanied by a strong attraction to music, and it was probably thanks to this that from childhood I became accustomed to thinking of chess as an art, for all the science and sport involved in it. ~ Vasily Smyslov

Chess would teach me strategy, fencing would teach me human nature and self-preservation, and dancing would teach me my body. All necessary for a well-rounded person. ~ Penelope Douglas

Life is not always like chess. Just because you have the king surrounded, don't think he is not capable of hurting you. ~ Ron Livingston

If it hadn't been for this chance hospital encounter, accidental in all senses, Victor might never have courted a girl. He already felt well on his way to middle age, and his social life was still limited to the chess club. Victor didn't really feel the need for another person in his life, in fact he found the concept of "sharing" a life bizarre. He had mathematics, which filled up his time almost completely, so he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted with a wife. Women seemed to him to be in possession of all kinds of undesirable properties, chiefly madness, but also a multiplicity of physical drawbacks - blood, sex, children - which were unsettling and other. ~ Kate Atkinson

When I was preparing for one term's work in the Botvinnik school I had to spend a lot of time on king and pawn endings. So when I came to a tricky position in my own games I knew the winning method. ~ Garry Kasparov

I consider chess an art, and accept all those responsibilities which art places upon its devotees. ~ Alexander Alekhine

He can be regarded as the great master of simplification. The art of resolving the tension at the critical moment and in the most effacious way so as to clarify the position as desired is Capablanca's own. ~ Max Euwe

There are more adventures on a chessboard than on all the seas of the world ~ Pierre Mac Orlan

Life is like a game of chess; you just have to play it backwards and work out all the moves you need to make in advance, to get where you need to be. ~ Alice Feeney

The first great chess players, including the world champion, got by perfectly well without constant coaches. ~ Anatoly Karpov

It was an impressive achievement, of course, and a human achievement by the members of the IBM team, but Deep Blue was only intelligent the way your programmable alarm clock is intelligent. Not that losing to a $10 million alarm clock made me feel any better. ~ Garry Kasparov

The king is a strong piece - use it ! ~ Reuben Fine

I think I can safely conclude that there is not a lot to be said for playing chess while on Valium. ~ Tony Miles

I spend around one hour per day on physical exercise. Exercise is a must for every chess player. As the proverb says, 'A sound mind in a sound body'. ~ Humpy Koneru

An hour's history of two minds is well told in a game of chess. ~ Jose Raul Capablanca

It is rightly said that the most difficult thing in chess is winning a won position ~ Vladimir Kramnik

Near the gardens, Pei stopped and caught her breath. She liked sweet-voiced Song Lee and hoped for the best in dealing with the other sisters, but Pei rememered all too well the different personalities that had affected her life, first at the girls' house, then at the silk factory and sisters' house. Dealing with so many people was often like playing a game of chess. There were so many pieces, all moving in different directions. It was always wise to guard all sides against capture. ~ Gail Tsukiyama

The pleasure of the sentence is to a high degree cultural. The artifact created by rhetors, grammarians, linguists, teachers, writers, parents
this artifact is mimicked in a more or less ludic manner; we are playing with an exceptional object, whose paradox has been articulated by linguistics: immutably structured and yet infinitely renewable: something like chess. ~ Roland Barthes

Chess is mental torture. ~ Garry Kasparov

The only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent. ~ Fundamentals Of Chess 1883

Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life ~ E. M. Forster

Chess is a game with simple rules and pieces, a small sixty-four-space board, but there are more possible chess games than there are atoms in the universe. ~ Austin Grossman

I just think we should look at this as a chess match," he said, "between the world's greatest chess player and Garry Kasparov. ~ Lou Gerstner

After all, we may grant that a program running in a computer can reason, can perform elaborate mathematical computations, can play chess better than a human champion, can beat humans in TV game shows, can translate speech, and can even drive vehicles, but we would still be hard pressed to believe that a program with those abilities has free will, that it is selfconscious, that it has the concept of self, and that it fears its own death. ~ Arlindo Oliveira

I used to play a lot of chess and competitive chess and study chess and as you get to the grandmasters and learn their styles when you start copying their games like the way they express themselves through ... The way Kasparov or Bobby Fischer expresses themselves through a game of chess is it's astonishing. You can show a chess master one of their games and they'll say "Yeah, that is done by that player." ~ Rainn Wilson

It is as though in the middle of a chess tournament one competitor should suddenly begin screaming that the other is guilty of arson or bigamy. The point that is really at issue remains untouched. Libel settles nothing ... ~ George Orwell

Love is like a game of chess. You're white. He's black. You wait for him to make a move, while staring into his handsome, melting-you-on-the-inside eyes, then realize what a dummy he is to not tell you straight out to go first. The beginning is the crush stage. You begin to realize how much you want to defeat him, or make him fall in love with you. By the time you get to the heat of the game, you both moved and are hopefully dating. If you haven't forfeit then because you don't want to be cheated on, you make another move- head on shoulder, hand holding, etc. Black makes another move-he gives you his jacket on a freezing night. By the endgame, he either realizes how stupid he was to play with you and forfeits, or he realizes how smart you are and lets you defeat him (and love you). By the time you win, you're married to him. A happily ever after game of chess. ~ Amrita Ramanathan

The chess player who develops the ability to play two dozen boards at a time will benefit from learning to compress his or her analysis into less time. ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Pawn endings are to Chess what putting is to golf ~ Cecil Purdy

The ideal in chess can only be a collective image, but in my opinion it is Capablanca who most closely approaches this ... ~ Anatoly Karpov

When I started out playing chess as a kid I thought I should be world champion. As a kid you have no idea what that means and you only sort of picture it. It is hard to imagine that I waited all those years and it happened in a late stage of my career. ~ Viswanathan Anand

To many people chess is an extreme sport. It requires a lot of thinking. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

We clutter the earth with our inventions, never dreaming that possibly they are unnecessary - or disadvantageous. We devise astounding means of communication, but do we communicate with one another? We move our bodies to and fro and incredible speeds, but do we really leave the spot we started from? Mentally, morally, spiritually, we are fettered. What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning? ~ Henry Miller

19.Rxc7N. There comes the novetly! [sic] Actually, the impression I had is that both players had more or less analyzed the rest of the game. ~ Romain Edouard

A sensation, hidden in the depths of my emotional memory, was suddenly revived: what if ... What if for me The Variation is not dead? If The Variation is alive?! ~ Lev Polugaevsky

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

HIs chess-playing methods did the same thing - as did the games on the Colossi - and posed the question as to where a line could be drawn between the 'intelligent' and the 'mechanical'. His view, expressed in terms of the imitation principle, was that there was no such line, and neither did he ever draw a sharp distinction between the 'states of mind' approach and the 'instruction note' approach to the problem of reconciling the appearance of freedom and of determinism. ~ Andrew Hodges

No one has ever played these endgames with such elegant ease as Capablanca. ~ Richard Reti

I cannot claim to thoroughly enjoy coaching, because it is very hard work if you are even moderately conscientious. Nevertheless it does provide a degree of satisfaction - not to mention a steady income, which is why I do it occasionally. ~ Nigel Short

Chess reflects the real world in miniature. Endeavor, struggle, success, and defeat - they are part of each game ever played. ~ Bruce Pandolfini

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

What would Chess be without silly mistakes? ~ Kurt Richter

Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people. ~ Nigel Short

Even today ... experts, usually male, tell women how to be mothers and warn them that they should not have children if they have any intention of leaving their side in their early years ... Children don't need parents' full-time attendance or attention at any stage of their development. Many people will help take care of their needs, depending on who their parents are and how they chose to fulfill their roles. ~ Stella Chess

Like most conversations and most chess games, we all start off the same and we all end the same, with a brief moment of difference in between. Fertilization to fertilizer. Ashes to ashes. And we spark across the gap. ~ Brian Christian

Chess strength in general and chess strength in a specific match are by no means one and the same thing. ~ Garry Kasparov

The great mobility of the King forms one of the chief characteristics of all endgame strategy. In the middlegame the King is a mere 'super', in the endgame on the other hand - on of the 'principals'. We must therefore develop him, bring him nearer to the fighting line. ~ Aron Nimzowitsch

The sunlight, penetrating the gaps in the tall trees, plays chess on the gravestones, shifting slowly and thoughtfully across the worn old stones. The wind, like a hundred violins, plays perpetually in the topmost branches of the deodars. ~ Ruskin Bond

I think a lot about the might-have-beens, the what-ifs. About the little places in history where one tiny, minute change can lead to a new and unimaginable future. It's like chess, so many permutations, probabilities, choices, cross-roads ... I think a lot about the future, our future. And I see uncertainty. ~ Lavie Tidhar

Chess only appeals to quite a small minority. It does not have the cachet of a mainstream popular sport. ~ Magnus Carlsen

Except for a handful, chess players don't have such illusions. The game has a severe analytic quality that makes self-deception difficult. Unlike the undiscovered poet who, despite the harsh criticism of his peers, lives on his fantasies for the day that he will be recognized as the next Dylan Thomas, even a young chess player can usually gauge his talent. When Josh was six, he played several games against a pudgy thirteen-year-old who was the top player on his high school team. He beat Josh every time, but a couple of the games were close, and afterwards the boy seemed gloomy about his performance. He explained that if he didn't make significant improvement during the next year, he would wind up as just another wood-pusher. Despite his celebrity in school, he seemed to know that he didn't have it. While ~ Fred Waitzkin

In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn't do well. They'd get bad openings. ~ Bobby Fischer

My job is to play chess, the game that I love. I achieve what I can in chess. That is what I focus on. Basically, I am always focused on playing the game, and this is important to me. ~ Viswanathan Anand

The study of typical plans is something that the leading grandmasters devote a great deal of time to. I would say that the most far-seeing of them devote as much time to this as to the study of openings. ~ Alexander Kotov

People are governed by the head; a kind heart is of little value in chess. ~ Nicolas Chamfort

Genius is a starry word; but if there ever was a chess player to whom that attribute applied, it was Paul Morphy. ~ Andrew Soltis

Cyber security like a game of chess, its main challenge not to win, but never surrender. ~ D.K.

Little boys are still playing the game [baseball], more little girls are playing, and it is still the world's most interesting game, a duel, a chess match, a foot race, a gymnastics exhibition, that rare opportunity for individuals to be recognized within a group effort. ~ Robert Lipsyte

Remorse has no place in a warrior's mind ... A war is like a game of chess, Nicholaa. Every battle is like a well-thought-out move on the board. Once it begins, there shouldn't be any emotion involved whatsoever. ~ Julie Garwood

It is not possible to become a great player without having learned how to analyse deeply and accurately. ~ Mark Dvoretsky

Because of the level of my chess game, I was able - even against a weak opponent, such as my younger brothers or the dog - to get myself checkmated in under three minutes. I challenge any computer to do it faster. ~ Dave Barry

In modern praxis lost positions are salvaged most often when the play is highly complicated with many sharp dynamic variations to be calculated. ~ Leonid Shamkovich

The draw by stalemate looks like a spot of discontinuity in the otherwise harmonious universe of values. To save a game by letting yourself be so completely humiliated as not being able to make a move looks rather undeserved. ~ Mihail Marin

Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all ~ Bobby Fischer

Some guys live in worlds where pawns stay pawns. I'm one move from king. ~ Darnell Lamont Walker

I like the moment when I break a man's ego ~ Bobby Fischer

Mathematics is a field which has often been compared with chess, but differs from the latter in that it is only one's best moments that count and not one's worst. ~ Norbert Wiener

Pawns are such fascinating pieces, too ... So small, almost insignificant, and yet
they can depose kings. Don't you find that interesting? ~ Lavie Tidhar

War is like a game of chess ... but with this little difference, that in chess you may think over each move as long as you please and are not limited for time, and with this difference too, that a knight is always stronger than a pawn, and two pawns are always stronger than one, while in war a battalion is sometimes stronger than a division and sometimes weaker than a company. The relative strength of bodies of troops can never be known to anyone ... Success never depends, and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers, and least of all on position. ~ Leo Tolstoy

What could be more advantageous in an intellectual contest - whether it be chess, bridge, or stock selection - than to have opponents who have been taught that thinking is a waste of energy? ~ Warren Buffett

It was like playing checkers, only to learn that your opponent was playing chess all along. ~ Barry Lyga

According to research, test scores improved by 17.3% for students regularly engaged in chess classes, compared with only 4.6% for children participating in other forms of enriched activities. ~ Susan Polgar

As it happens" said my uncle," I intended to make an appearance at the met today anyway. Inspector Lestrade has been bumbling through another investigation, and I decided it would be best to offer my assistance before he travels too far down an incorrect deductive path- and note that I use the term deductive liberally. I don`t belive Lestrade could deduce in which direction a horse crossed the street even if he came upon a pile of its dung!"
Sherlock Holmes, The Chess queen enigma ~ Colleen Gleason

Because of all the things I've experienced on this journey - shrinking and growing, flying sprites, living chess pieces - not a one of them is more magical than this moment. ~ A.G. Howard

Who is your opponent tonight, tonight I am playing against the Black pieces ~ Akiba Rubinstein

My opponent is Short and the match will be short. ~ Garry Kasparov

When you sit down to play a game you should think only about the position, but not about the opponent. Whether chess is regarded as a science, or an art, or a sport, all the same psychology bears no relation to it and only stands in the way of real chess. ~ Jose Raul Capablanca

Sienna Rivers, ex-nerd, undisputed reigning chess champion of the class of 09 and the proverbial all round wise-ass degenerate pain in your backside. ~ Ali Harper

When they killed him, Mother wouldn't hold her peace, so they slit her throat. I was stupid then, being only nine, and I fought to save them both. But the thorns held me tight. I've learned to appreciate thorns since. The thorns taught me the game. They let me understand what all those grim and serious men who've fought the Hundred War have yet to learn. You can only win the game when you understand that it IS a game. Let a man play chess, and tell him that every pawn is his friend. Let him think both bishops holy. Let him remember happy days in the shadows of his castles. Let him love his queen. Watch him loose them all. ~ Mark Lawrence

Fischer is the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens. ~ Mikhail Tal

When I saw 'Chess' in London, I thought it was horrible. It was so static. People were coming down front and just facing the audience, singing. ~ Donna McKechnie

I don't like to dwell on the past. I'm interested in Fischerandom now, I am working on a new clock, I'm trying to make chess a more exciting game today. I am not interested in sitting in my rocking chair thinking what I did 10, 20 or 30 years ago. ~ Bobby Fischer

My opponents make good moves too. Sometimes I don't take these things into consideration ~ Bobby Fischer

Life isn't always like Chess. But sometimes it is. In a really difficult game, queen leaves board at the end. The difference is, you call it sacrifice in Chess. ~ Heshan Udunuwara

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

Chess was natural for me; I was extremely successful. ~ Garry Kasparov

Fighting for me is a chess game. I'm not angry with my opponent. I just want to go in there and win. ~ Demian Maia

All chess masters have on occasion played a magnificent game and then lost it by a stupid mistake, perhaps in time pressure and it may perhaps seem unjust that all their beautiful ideas get no other recognition than a zero on the tournament table. ~ Bent Larsen

Litigation is the pursuit of practical ends, not a game of chess. ~ Felix Frankfurter

Physical love only rarely merges with the soul's love. What does the soul actually do when the body unites (in that age-old, universal, immutable motion) with another body? What a wealth of invention it finds in those moments, thus reaffirming its superiority over the monotony of the corporeal life! How it scorns the body, and uses it (together with its partner) as a pretext for insane fantasies a thousand times more carnal than the two coupled bodies! Or conversely: how it belittles the body by leaving it to its pendular to-and-fro while the soul (already wearied by the caprices of the body) turns its thoughts entirely elsewhere: to a game of chess, to recollections of dinner, to a book... ~ Milan Kundera

Miss Vesper Holly has the digestive talents of a goat and the mind of a chess master. She is familiar with half a dozen languages and can swear fluently in all of them. She understands the use of a slide rule but prefers doing calculations in her head. She does not hesitate to risk life and limb- mine as well as her own. No doubt she has other qualities as yet undiscovered. I hope not. ~ Lloyd Alexander

Chess is too difficult to be a game and not serious enough to be a science or an art. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

One minute I was playing chess and doing maths all the time, the next I had been rerouted into more 'normal' girls' activities: reading, writing stories and worrying about my clothes. ~ Scarlett Thomas

I've seen - both in myself and my competitors - how satisfaction can lead to a lack of vigilance, then to mistakes and missed opportunities. ~ Garry Kasparov

I do not know from what associations the hippopotamus got into the chess board, but although the spectators were convinced that I was continuing to study the position, I, despite my humanitarian education, was trying at this time to work out: just how WOULD you drag a hippopotamus out of the marsh? I remember how jacks figured in my thoughts, as well as levers, helicopters, and even a rope ladder. After a lengthy consideration I admitted defeat as an engineer, and thought spitefully to myself: "Well, just let it drown!" And suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared. Went right off the chessboard just as he had come on... of his own accord! And straightaway the position did not appear to be so complicated. ~ Mikhail Tal

But compared with the task of selecting a piece of French pastry held by an impatient waiter a move in chess is like reaching for a salary check in its demand on the contemplative faculties. ~ Robert Benchley

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. ~ Mikhail Botvinnik

A lot of the difference between an IM and GM is a seriousness to the game. The GM is willing to go through all this. He's willing to put up with anything. This shows his dedication. One other thing is the GMs superiority in tactics. For example Christiansen can find tactics in any position. If you're a GM you should be able to overpower the IM tactically. The GM will often blow out the IM in this area. ~ Nick De Firmian

I wanted us to share the sense that the number of wrong moves far exceeds the number of good moves, to share the frightening instability of the correct decision, to bond in being confounded. ~ Aleksandar Hemon