In no particular order, we bring you a collection of quotations from some of the greatest (and some of the more average!) chess players and commentators in history.
"With his death, we have lost a very great chess genius whose like we shall never see again."
Alekhine, commenting on his bitter rival Capablanca's death
"The blunders are all there on the board, waiting to be made."
Savielly Tartakower
"They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man. There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."
Bobby Fischer
"Checkers is for tramps."
Paul Morphy
"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
"Morphy was probably the greatest genius of them all."
Bobby Fischer
"Poor Capablanca! Thou wert a brilliant technician, but no philosopher. Thou wert not capable of believing that in chess, another style could be victorious than the absolutely correct one."
Max Euwe, 1942
"The hardest game to win is a won game."
Emanuel Lasker
"Chess is a beautiful mistress."
Bent Larsen
"Why must I lose to this idiot?"
Aron Nimzovich, during a mistake-plagued game in the 1920s.
"The obvious move is often not the best move, the best move is often not the strongest move and the chosen move is rarely as good as you think it is."
Unknown.
"A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing."
Comedian Emo Philips
"The pawns are the soul of chess."
Philidor
"Pawns are born free, yet are everywhere in chains."
Andrew Soltis
"As one by one I mowed them down, my superiority soon became apparent."
Capablanca (from My Chess Career)
|
