Wilhelm Steinitz (at the right side of the table), the first official World Chess Champion, with members of the Philadelphia Chess Club in 1882.

Chess Quotes

Chess is an incredibly emotional game. If everything around you is harmonious, when you are feeling good, you are in a creative mood. If something is disturbing you and you are in a bad mood, then it is difficult to be creative. So you have to create the right atmosphere.
-- Vladimir Kramnik, Spiegel-Online Interview, 2004

Good positions don't win games, good moves do.
-- Gerald Abrahams

Weaknesses of character are normally shown in a game of chess.
-- Garry Kasparov

The human element, the human flaw and the human nobility - those are the reasons that chess matches are won or lost.
-- Viktor Korchnoi

Take the machine into the endgame, and if you have the knowledge you have the edge.
-- Source Unknown

The older I grow, the more I value Pawns.
-- Keres

Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it - checkmate ends the game.
-- Nigel Short

Prefers to move an attacked piece rather than defend it.
-- Cecil J. Purdy

When you see a good move wait - look for a better one.
-- Emanuel Lasker

From my close contact with artists and chess players I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.
-- Marcel Duchamp, Cazenovia, 1952

Chess mastery essentially consists of analysing chess positions accurately.
-- Botvinnik

When you absolutely don't know what to do anymore, it is time to panic.
-- John van der Wiel

In chess, only the attacker wins.
-- Alexander Kotov

I prefer to lose a really good game than to win a bad one.
-- David Levy

Bishops for attack, knights for defense.
-- Source Unknown

Chess is everything - art, science and sport.
-- A. Karpov

Chess is a struggle and a sport to me. But I feel the obviousness of chess as a fusion of science and art ... I am grateful to chess, first of all, because it helped me to understand myself more clearly, to choose my way in life ...
-- Gary Kasparov

Chess skill requires a broad range of analytical ability, psychological strength and intuitive experience.
-- Mike Henroid (Boston Herald)

I refer myself to those chess players who consider that the homework for the game is not limited with the opening only but extends far beyond.
-- Efim Petrovich Geller

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Chess problems demand from the composer the same virtues that characterize all worthwile art: originality, invention, conciseness, harmony, complexity, and splendid insincerity.
-- Vladimir Nabokov, 'Poems and Problems', 1969 (via Tim Krabbé)

Chess has to be played with pleasure.
-- Lubomir Kavalek, in a 1978 'Chess Life' interview

Wilhelm Steinitz was the first man to appreciate the inherent logic behind the game of chess.
-- IM William Hartston, in 'The Kings of Chess' (1985)

Capture of the adverse King is the ultimate but not the first object of the game.
-- William Steinitz (1836-1900), The first official world champion

Castle if you must, or if you want to, but not because you can!
-- Hans Berliner

Chess is a sport. The main object in the game of chess remains the achievement of victory.
-- Max Euwe

A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused.
-- Rudolph Spielmann

Chess world's percentage structure: one master, two chess journalists, 3 young eager talents and 100 understanding commentators.
-- Tartakower

When I was a child, I had three main passions. I wanted to play the piano, but I couldn't afford to buy one. I also wanted to be an actor, but my pronunciation was not pure enough. So I settled for chess.
-- Viktor Kortchnoi (swissinfo.org-interview, 'Viktor Kortchnoi, a life devoted to chess')

Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe.
-- Indian proverb

When you play Bobby, it is not a question if you win or lose. It is a question if you survive.
-- Boris Spassky

There is only one thing Fischer does in chess without pleasure: lose!
-- Boris Spassky

I drink, I smoke, I gamble, I chase girls -- but postal chess is one vice I don't have.
-- Mikhail Tal

Chess is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game.
-- Paul Morphy

If you play to win, as I do, the game never ends.
-- Stan Mikita

Could we look into the head of a Chess player, we should see there a whole world of feelings, images, ideas, emotion and passion.
-- A. Binet, French Psychologist (1857-1911)

Chess isn't 99% tactics, it's just that tactics takes up 99% of your time.
-- Dan Heisman

Picture Postcards: from top - (1) The main square of Marostica (Italy) serves as a giant chessboard for a highly original game of chess with costumed people as the chessmen. Picture postcard published by Golden, Rome. (2) Associazione Scacchistica Italiana Giocatori Per Corrispondenza, 1969-1994. Foto: Carlo Bolmida. Urbino, 25.09.1994. (3) Designed by Sarah E. Beaumont. B77, 1993. Printed by Thought Factory, Leicester, UK. Limited Edition of 1250.

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Location: Netanya, Israel. My email address is .

Copyright Lucian Millis, 2003-2008.

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