Favorite Quotes
“I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” Marcel Duchamp
“The Soviet masters prefer the two bishops -if they have them. And they prefer the two knights -if they have them.” Irving Chernev (The Golden Dozen)
“I have not given any drawn or lost games, because I thought them inadequate to the purpose of the book.” Jose Raul Capablanca (My Chess Career)
“You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.” Mikhail Tal
“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
“He must abstain some days from meat to clear his brain as also to let blood, he should take both purgatives and emetics to drive the humours from his body, and he must above all be sure to confess his sins and receive spiritual absolution just before sitting down to play in order to counteract the demoniacal influence of magic spells.” Pietro Carrera (Sicilian Priest who wrote “Il Gioco degli Scacchi [The Game of Chess] in 1617.)
“Of chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not chess.” Irving Chernev
“Improvement begins at the edge of your comfort zone” Jonathan Rowson (Chess for Zebras)
“Heaven gave us chess, and hell gave us analysis” British Chess Magazine 1890
“…He was not interested in the objectivity of the position, whether it’s better or worse, he only needed room for his pieces.” Mikhail Bothnnivik (On Tal’s approach to chess)
”It is a profound mistake to imagine that the art of combination depends only on natural talent, and that it cannot be learned. Every experienced player knows that all combinations arise from a collection of familiar elements.” Richard Reti
“The core idea is that aspiring players should place much more emphasis on developing their skill than increasing their knowledge. This means that chess work should be less focused on ‘learning’, and more about ‘training’ and ‘practicing’ whereby you force yourself to think.” Jonathan Rowson (Chess for Zebras)
“Development of the brain should not be the sum total of the human endeavor. The richest and happiest peoples will be those who attain a well-balanced are those who attain closest to balance perfection of mind and body, and even these must alway be short of perfection. An absolute and general perfection lies stifling monotony and death. Nature most have contrast. She must have shadows as well as highlights, sorrow with happiness. both wrong and right, and sin as well as virtue” Edgar Rice Burroughs from “The Chessmen of Mars”
