There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knights-odds to and still beat.
Bobby FischerRead
But the thing that was great about Capablanca was that he really spoke his mind, he said what he believed was true, he said what he felt. He [Capablanca] wanted to change the rules [of chess] already, back in the twenties, because he said chess was getting played out. He was right. Now chess is completely dead. It is all just memorisation and prearrangement. It's a terrible game now. Very uncreative.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bobby Fischer critiques the modern state of chess, emphasizing the importance of expressing true feelings and creative thought.
In this quote, Bobby Fischer reflects on the genius of José Raúl Capablanca, highlighting his candidness and innovative spirit. Fischer mourns the current state of chess, which he feels has devolved into a rigid game dominated by memorization rather than creativity, thus advocating for a return to genuine expression and individual thought within the game.
Themes
ChessCreativityInnovationExpressionMemory
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the evolution of games, this quote can highlight the importance of creativity over rote memorization.
More from Bobby Fischer
All quotes →She and I just don't see eye to eye together. She's a square. She keeps telling me that I'm too interested in chess, that I should get friends outside of chess, you can't make a living from chess, that I should finish high school and all that nonsense. She keeps in my hair and I don't like people in my hair, you know, so I had to get rid of her.
Bobby FischerRead
Capablanca was among the greatest of chess players, but not because of his endgame. His trick was to keep his openings simple, and then play with such brilliance in the middlegame that the game was decided - even though his ooponent didn't always know it - before they arrived at the ending.
Bobby FischerRead
I give 98 percent of my mental energy to Chess Others give only 2 percent
Bobby FischerRead
I felt that chess... is a science in the form of a game... I consider myself a scientist. I wanted to be treated like a scientist.
Bobby FischerRead
You have to have the fighting spirit. You have to force moves and take chances
Bobby FischerRead
Similar quotes
I don't think much new ever happens. Most of us spend our days the same way people spent their days in the year 1000: walking around smiling, trying to earn enough to eat, while neurotically doing these little self-proofs in our head about how much better we are than these other slobs, while simultaneously, in another part of our brain, secretly feeling woefully inadequate to these smarter, more beautiful people.
George SaundersRead
Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.
Woody AllenRead
To affirm is not to bear, carry, or harness oneself to that which exists, but on the contrary to unburden, unharness, and set free that which lives.
Gilles DeleuzeRead
Man's maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.
Saint AugustineRead
Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever?
C. S. LewisRead
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
Henry Ward BeecherRead