Chess quotes .....

It just had to happen one day ...... a "Chess quotes" thread ... here it is, enjoy ......


"To be creative, to be adventurous, to exhibit flair, is no excuse for not studying hard. The truth is exactly the opposite. You have to work constantly at your game, at your openings and endings. A deep analysis is necessary. Chess is not a fixed or static body of knowledge. It's dynamic. Even the books I've written on chess and the annotations I've made on my own matches are not set in stone. I keep updating them. There must be a constant questioning of old ideas, even one's own."

Garry Kasparov

"Women can't play chess"

Hein Donner

"A computer beat me in chess, but it was no match when it came to kickboxing"
Signature of an anonymous message board user.

"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, Certain Personal Matters, 1898

"I won't play with you anymore. You have insulted my friend."
Miguel Najdorf, at blitz, when an opponent cursed himself for a blunder.

"Chess and theatre often lead to madness."
Arrabal, Sur Fischer, 1974

Originally posted by coentje
"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 ...[text shortened]... liable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess."
H.G. Wells, Certain Personal Matters, 1898

"Checkers is for tramps."
Paul Morphy

Originally posted by coentje
"Checkers is for tramps."
Paul Morphy

Originally posted by Regicidal
absolutely, beautiful quote.

"I have not given any drawn or lost games, because I thought them inadequate to the purpose of the book."
Jose Capablanca, My Chess Career, 1920

"We like to think."
Gary Kasparov, asked by Hans Ree why he and Karpov get into time trouble so often.

"Dazzling combinations are for the many, shifting wood is for the few."
Georg Kieninger, Deutsche Schachhefte, 1950

"Chess is so inspiring that I do not believe a good player is capable of having an evil thought during the game."
Wilhelm Steinitz, interview with J. Moquette, 1896

"The process of rating players can be compared to the measurement of the position of a cork bobbing up and down on the surface of agitated water with a yard stick tied to a rope and which is swaying in the wind."
Arpad Elo, Chess Life, 1962