Quotes on Chess

Chess is a forcing house where the fruits of character can ripen more fully than in life

Your body has to be in top condition. Your Chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind

Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of haviong an evil thought during the game.

Chess never has been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged in to the detriment of other and more serious avocations - should not absorb or engross the thoughts of those who worship at its shrine, but should be kept in the background, and restrained within its proper province. As a mere game, a relaxation from the severe pursuits of life, it is deserving of high commendation.

Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.

Chess is the touchstone of intellect.

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

Chess is everything: art, science, and sport.

Life is a kind of Chess, with struggle, competition, good and ill events.

I have always disliked the fierce competitive spirit embodied in that highly intellectual game.

Many have become chess masters - no one has become the master of chess.

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.

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

Capablanca's play produced and still produces an irresistable artistic effect. In his games a tendency towards simplicity predominated, and in this simplicity there was a unique beauty of genuine depth.

The ideal in chess can only be a collective image, but in my opinion it is Capablanca who most closely approaches this.

The great World Champions Morphy, Steinitz, and Lasker were past masters in the art of Pawn play; they had no superiors in their handling of endgames. The present World Champion has not the strength of the other three as an endgame player, and is therefore inferior to them.

Sultan Khan had become champion of India at Indian chess and he learned the rules of our form of chess at a later date. The fact that even under such conditions he succeeded in becoming champion reveals a genius for chess which is nothing short of extraordinary.

Chess is something more than a game. It is an intellectual diversion which has certain artistic qualities and many scientific elements.

The game might be divided into three parts, the opening, the middle-game and the end-game. There is one thing you must strive for, to be equally efficient in the three parts.

The king, which during the opening and middlegame stage is often a burden because it has to be defended, becomes in the endgame a very important and aggressive piece, and the beginner should realize this, and utilize his king as much as possible.

To improve at chess you should in the first instance study the endgame.