Playing Chess Quotes

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

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

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

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

If I understand you right,' he says, 'you're saying that you're basically a calculating manipulative person who always says what you think will get somebody to approve of you or form some impression of you you think you want.' I told him that was maybe a little simplistic but basically accurate, and he said further that as he understood it I was saying that I felt as if I was trapped in this false way of being and unable ever to be really open and tell the truth irregardless of whether it'd make me look good in others' eyes or not. And I somewhat resignedly said yes, and that I seemed always to have had this fraudulent, calculating part of my brain firing way all the time, as if I were constantly playing chess with everybody and figuring out that if I wanted them to move a certain way I had to move in such a way as to induce them to move that way. He asked if I ever played chess, and I told him I used to in middle school but quit because I couldn't be as good as I eventually wanted to be, how frustrating it was to get just good enough to know what getting really good at it would be like but not being able to get that good, etc. ~ David Foster Wallace

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

All I want to do, ever, is play chess. ~ Bobby Fischer

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

Mami wanted me to be a lady: sit up straight, cross my ankles, let men protect me. Papi wanted me to be a leader. To think quick & strike hard, to speak rarely, but when I did, to always be heard. Me? Playing chess taught me a queen is both: deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless. Quiet & cunning. A queen offers her hand to be kissed, & can form it into a fist while smiling the whole damn time ~ Elizabeth Acevedo

Ralph ... would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player. ~ William Golding

The Kremlin is constantly changing the rules of the game to suit its purposes. We are not playing chess, we're playing roulette. ~ Garry Kasparov

He was playing chess and she was sucking at checkers. ~ Karin Slaughter

Listening to a book and in the same time playing chess is one of the best decision ever made. ~ Deyth Banger

You have good instincts,trust them. Thinking through every step is fine if you're playing chess, but this isn't chess. ~ Rick Yancey

Riding a bike works your legs but not your brain. Playing chess works your mind but not your body. Climbing brings it all together. ~ Pat Ament

Playing chess or Go or Tigris and Euphrates - a very good game, by the way - I can watch people as they choose their strategy and note how they respond to something I've done. Even ~ Jeffery Deaver

It was not until I got my first job, at the University of Washington in Seattle, and began playing chess with Don Gordon, a brilliant young theorist, that I learned economic theory. ~ Douglass North

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

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

Crossword puzzles, Sudoku ... I'm good at all those things. It's not daily, but I'll do stuff on the airplane. I love playing chess. It's my favorite game. ~ Larry Fitzgerald

I'm playing checkers while they're playing chess
They make the big moves that make me a little less
Even when I win and beat the pants off of the best
I'm still playing checkers while they're playing chess ~ Billy Joe Shaver

The captain was a good chess player, and the games were always interesting. Yossarian had stopped playing chess with him because the games were so interesting they were foolish. ~ Joseph Heller

Pretenders try to out-think their opponents as if they were playing chess. Tennis is a martial art. Instinctive fluid action is far more effective than thinking. ~ Anonymous

Let the perfectionist play postal. ~ Yasser Seirawan

Another time, he was playing [chess] with his equal, the Duchess of Bourbon, who made a move that inadvertently exposed her king. Ignoring the rules of the game, he promptly captured it. "Ah," said the duchess, "we do not take Kings so." Replied Franklin in a famous quip: "We do in America. ~ Walter Isaacson

It's important, according to me, to train in small doses so as to not lose the joy of playing chess. I personally think too many coaching and training classes may take away a child's interest in the game itself. The essential thing to do is practise often and, in case of a doubt, to consult a trainer. ~ Viswanathan Anand

I was reasonably interested in mathematics in school. Typically what happens is ... when you start playing chess, it takes up a lot of your attention. But about 10 years ago, I found that the Internet is very good to start learning about a lot of subjects. ~ Viswanathan Anand

I got arrested for playing chess in the street. I said, it's because I'm black, isn't it. ~ Milton Jones

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

Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess. ~ Anatoly Karpov

Nothing excites jaded Grandmasters more than a theoretical novelty ~ Dominic Lawson

Some days life feels like I am playing chess with the village idiot. ~ Anthony Blankenship

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

We've been playing chess with this iPhone app. He hasn't made a move in so long our last game got forfeited. Ten days, or something like that."
"You two play chess on your phones?" Ty asked.
"Yeah." Zane shrugged. ~ Abigail Roux

Work, as we usually think of it, is energy expended for a further end in view; play is energy expended for its own sake, as with children's play, or as manifestation of the end or goal of work, as in "playing" chess or the piano. Play in this sense, then, is the fulfillment of work, the exhibition of what the work has been done for. ~ Northrop Frye

Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival. ~ Frank Herbert

We've seen computers play chess and beat grand masters. We've seen computers drive a car across a desert. But interestingly, playing chess is easy, but having a conversation about nothing is really difficult for a computer. ~ Hod Lipson

Levity and sincerity are not antonyms. We take pleasure in playing chess, but that does not mean we make wasteful moves. You ~ Claire North

Playing rapid chess, one can lose the habit of concentrating for several hours in serious chess. That is why, if a player has big aims, he should limit his rapidplay in favour of serious chess. ~ Vladimir Kramnik

If I win a tournament, I win it by myself. I do the playing. Nobody helps me ~ Bobby Fischer

Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make. ~ David Hockney

I know people who have all the will in the world, but still can't play good Chess ~ Bobby Fischer

I started playing chess when I was five years old. I learned the moves from my mother, then worked with my father - and later trainers. My style became very technical. I sacrificed a lot of things. I was always hunting for the king, for the mate. I'd forget about my other pieces. ~ Garry Kasparov

Playing chess has many aspects that can be useful in everyday situations like planning, concentration and combinations. You learn to win but also to lose and to be creative. ~ Judit Polgar

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

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

It was once stated that God didn't play with dice, but then I discovered that most of the Gods did play with dice. However, they didn't see Destiny playing chess the entire time behind them. They never stood a chance, seeing that Destiny was on both sides of the board. ~ Lionel Suggs

He meant business; I could hear it in his voice.
Marlboro Man was talking about Chicago, about my imminent move. I'd told him my plans the first time we'd ever spoken on the phone, and he'd mentioned it once or twice during our two wonderful weeks together. But the more time we'd spent together, the less it had come up. Leaving was the last thing I wanted to talk about while I was with him.
I couldn't respond. I had no idea what to say.
"You there?" Marlboro Man asked.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm here." That was all I could manage.
"Well…I just wanted to say good night," he said quietly.
"I'm glad you did," I replied. I was an idiot.
"Good night," he whispered.
"Good night."
I woke up the next morning with puffy, swollen eyes. I'd slept like a rock, having dreamed about Marlboro Man all night long. They'd been vivid dreams, crazy dreams, dreams of us talking and playing chess and shooting each other with Silly String. He'd already become such a permanent fixture in my consciousness, I dreamed about him nightly…effortlessly. ~ Ree Drummond

Downright ridiculous legislation (such as laws specifically prohibiting blacks and whites from playing chess together). ~ Michelle Alexander

Public men in America are too public. Too accessible. This sitting on the stoop and being 'just folk' was all very well for local politics and the simple farmer days of a hundred years ago, but it's no good for world affairs. Opening flower-shows and being genial to babies and all that is out of date. These parish politics methods have to go. The ultimate leader ought to be distant, audible but far off. Show yourself and then vanish into a cloud. Marx would never have counted for one tenth of his weight as 'Charlie Marx' playing chess with the boys, and Woodrow Wilson threw away all his magic as far as Europe was concerned when he crossed the Atlantic. Before he crossed he was a god -- what a god he was! After he arrived he was just a grinning guest. I've got to be the Common Man, yes, but not common like that. ~ H.G.Wells

I failed to make the chess team because of my height. ~ Woody Allen

You know, comrade Pachman, I don't enjoy being a Minister, I would rather play chess like you, or make a revolution in Venezuela. ~ Che Guevara

It's not that the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess. It's that the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because once again they glued their balls to their thighs. ~ Jon Stewart

Playing chess is more athletic than artistic. Champions are more concerned with victory than beauty: it's war with occasionally graceful kicks. ~ Jennifer Shahade

Her curiosity would be the end of them both. "Chess. They are playing chess," he said, his voice oddly husky. "Chess? I think you meant chest. Yes, he has his hand on her chest," she murmured. ~ Maya Rodale

In the economic sphere too, the ability to hold a hammer or press a button is becoming less valuable than before. In the past, there were many things only humans could do. But now robots and computers are catching up, and may soon outperform humans in most tasks. True, computers function very differently from humans, and it seems unlikely that computers will become humanlike any time soon. In particular, it doesn't seem that computers are about to gain consciousness, and to start experiencing emotions and sensations. Over the last decades there has been an immense advance in computer intelligence, but there has been exactly zero advance in computer consciousness. As far as we know, computers in 2016 are no more conscious than their prototypes in the 1950s. However, we are on the brink of a momentous revolution. Humans are in danger of losing their value, because intelligence is decoupling from consciousness.
Until today, high intelligence always went hand in hand with a developed consciousness. Only conscious beings could perform tasks that required a lot of intelligence, such as playing chess, driving cars, diagnosing diseases or identifying terrorists. However, we are now developing new types of non-conscious intelligence that can perform such tasks far better than humans. For all these tasks are based on pattern recognition, and non-conscious algorithms may soon excel human consciousness in recognising patterns. This raises a novel question: which of the two is really ~ Yuval Noah Harari

The 10,000-hours rule says that if you look at any kind of cognitively complex field, from playing chess to being a neurosurgeon, we see this incredibly consistent pattern that you cannot be good at that unless you practice for 10,000 hours, which is roughly ten years, if you think about four hours a day. ~ Malcolm Gladwell

In Chess, as it is played by masters, chance is practically eliminated. ~ Emanuel Lasker

The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. It slaps the theory of natural selection in the face. It is the most absorbing of occupations. The least satisfying of desires. A nameless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man. You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess. ~ H.G.Wells

Let's say you're playing chess against someone who's got more pieces on the board and decades more experience than we do. How do you win?"

"You don't," Rose said. "Unless you cheat."

"We already tried cheating," I said. "Getting him in trouble, risking his job. He's apparently planning a response tonight."

"Change the game, then," Rose said.

"Again, we tried that. There's no winning. Not really. So what I'm proposing is pretty simple."

"Do tell," Rose said. "Also, you do know that we're being followed?"

"We're surrounded," I said. "But she wants to deal badly enough that she'll hear us out before she murders us. Nevermind that. Our analogy here. I'm proposing the pigeon strategy. Knock over all of the pieces, shit on the board, and then strut around like we're the victors. ~ Wildbow

When I was a kid, I really liked playing chess, which is pretty geeky; I just enjoyed it - thinking, exercising my mind. And I found computers to be like an eight-hour day chess game. ~ Michael Birch

Every Chess master was once a beginner ~ Irving Chernev

If you only live in the world of the actor, and if you only live in the world of auditions, etc., then you don't really have a whole lot to offer when it comes to playing the humans that you're trying to audition for. ~ Allison Tolman

Have you ever tried to get an elderly relative to play a video game? Highlander is a way to experience the confusion and bewilderment they feel, even if you're well versed with the medium yourself. What's going on? Why isn't the little man moving? Why does he keep falling over? Why can't I ever win? Can I stop playing and watch Columbo now? ~ Stuart Ashen

A true believer may worship Jehovah, Allah, or Brahma, the supernatural beings who allegedly created all life; a true believer may slavishly adhere to a dogma designed theoretically to improve life; yet for life itself - its pleasures, wonders, and delights - he or she holds minimal regard. Music, chess, wine, card games, attractive clothing, dancing, meditation, kites, perfume, marijuana, flirting, soccer, cheeseburgers, any expression of beauty, and any recognition of genius or individual excellence: each of those things has been severely condemned and even outlawed by one cadre of true believers or another in modern times. ~ Tom Robbins

Gansey turned the key. The engine turned over once, paused for the briefest of moments - and then roared to deafening life. The Camaro lived to fight another day. The radio was even working, playing the Stevie Nicks song that always sounded to Gansey like it was about a one-winged dove. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

I love playing strong feisty women, I really do, but if you were to ask my husband he'd probably say that I'm very insecure. And actually incredibly malleable, which isn't necessarily a good thing. ~ Alex Kingston

When you're on a golf course, a couple of things are very interesting. No matter who you're with and who you're playing with, people want each other to do well. ~ Condoleezza Rice

In parting, I would remind you that Life is a checkerboard, and the player opposite you is time. If you hesitate before moving, or neglect to move promptly, your men will be wiped off the board by time. You are playing against a partner who will not tolerate decisions! ~ Napoleon Hill

I'm definitely a girly-girl and I love playing with fashion, but at the same time I will go skydiving with you tomorrow. ~ Shay Mitchell

I'm drenched
in the flood
which has yet to come

I'm tied up
in the prison
that has yet to exist

Not having played
the game of chess
I'm already the checkmate

Not having tasted
a single cup of your wine
I'm already drunk

Not having entered
the battlefield
I'm already wounded and slain

I no longer
know the difference
between image and reality

Like the shadow
I am
and
I am not ~ Jalaluddin Rumi

Some games are fun even when you lose. Even when you know you're going to lose before you start. It's fun just playing them. ~ Nevil Shute

Nine are killed instantly. One of them still clutching the hand of bridge he was playing when the shell struck. ~ Anthony Doerr

In D&D, I love playing the first guy through the door - the guy with the battle-axe. 'Where are the bad guys? Just point me at 'em!' ~ Brian Posehn

I didn't fully realize it then, but that was the thing I was most trying to earn playing baseball. Not money. Not glory ... Love. ~ Joe Pepitone

If you're playing any real person, live or dead, you certainly have a responsibility to produce that reputation in some way. ~ Jim Broadbent

It was funny on '24' because I'm a Scots-Canadian, and I was working with the great Scottish actor Tony Curran, and we were both playing Russian gangsters. ~ Callum Keith Rennie

Giving and receiving are the same process. You are the conduit playing your role. ~ Debasish Mridha

If you do base your life on how many touchdowns you score, how many championships you win, then when you have a setback, then when you have an injury, you're not playing, or something goes wrong, your self-worth goes down. ~ Tim Tebow

One day humanity will play with law just as children play with disused objects, not in order to restore them to their canonical use but to free them from it for good. ~ Giorgio Agamben

You look green, immature. A young boy playing at business, dressing up in the manner in which he believes an actual grown-up would. Your viewpoint of business attire is one of wide-eyed wonder from the nursery door. ~ Chris Murray

Playing evil is just not interesting. I don't think anyone who does evil stuff thinks they're doing evil stuff. That's the scary part. ~ Carice Van Houten

You can't change the rules and think everyone else is just going to keep playing. ~ Katja Millay

Make a list of some things your children like you to do with them but aren't necessarily fun for you - playing a board game on the floor with a young child, going outside to throw a ball, sitting down with a child to read his or her creative story or to look at an artistic creation, and so on. Commit to saying yes to their requests instead of no, knowing that if you invest in what is important to them, they will be open to believing in what is important to you. ~ Sally Clarkson

One day, I was playing 'The Game of Life,' the board game, with a mess of kids, and I wasn't quite sure how, but it seemed different than the game I remembered playing as a kid. So I bought an old game, from 1960, and it was different. ~ Jill Lepore

There can be no finer example of the inspiring powers of competition to shatter the status quo than Hungary's Judit Polgar. ~ Garry Kasparov

On evenings, I spent the entire study period reading....
From that time on, the world began to broaden around me, beyond any tangible limits.
The world, as portrayed in those works destined for young people, was divided in two: an ordinary, everyday world, brutal and unresponding to desires, and a spacious, logical world, about all kind, interesting and desirable.
Wasn't the very act of reading a pleasure more substantial than that of playing or eating, for instance, even when one was starved? ~ Joseph Zobel

A child playing with its father screams louder, laughs harder, jumps more eagerly, puts more faith in everything. ~ Lydia Netzer

I'm actually a pretty upbeat person outside of playing music. ~ Ryan Adams

A great chess player always has a very good memory. ~ Leonid Shamkovich

What does NOT work best for anyone, though, is being forced to keep a Windows partition around just to play video games. The best operating system for playing games is the one that lets you keep your word processor, instant messenger, email, and music player open in the background while you play. The worst is the one that will force you to shut all that down just to screw around for a few minutes. ~ Ryan C. Gordon

For Sid, playing with monsters was the equivalent of playing with genders. ~ W. Freedreamer Tinkanesh

Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend's house - should you choose to play your game at your friend's house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile. ~ Larry Hryb

I mean, I really, really love playing solo. Definitely, it's like a labor of love, it's not a huge career. It's not that successful, but it's something I love so much that I'll do it regardless. ~ Amy Ray

It never bothered me when people would say, 'You only win championships because you're playing with Shaq.' It bothered me when he said it. ~ Kobe Bryant

My point of view is that when I am playing cricket I cannot think that this game is less or more important. ~ Sachin Tendulkar

I put a lot into it, and when I am done playing, I plan on going undercover and then being the sheriff or chief of police somewhere, either Miami or Orlando, I don't know yet. ~ Shaquille O'Neal

The feeling you get from playing to a good audience is hard to describe without sounding as though you are talking silly. But reaction is important. You might feel in yourself that you're doing it ok but it's when you get the live reaction that you know you're doing it right. ~ Tony Iommi

Being that attuned to each other's inner emotional lives was the sometimes unfortunate side effect of playing music together. ~ Aja Gabel

I've only ever had one doubt about music. It came when I was 11. I hated playing scales. ~ Tom Odell